Does the fitbit show sleep apnea?

[luv2pugs]

I've been to a sleep clinic and was diagnosed with mild and occasional apnea. I do not see any breaks in my sleep patterns on my fitbit that support that diagnosis. Would it show disruptions in my sleep pattern?

[Odyssey13]

The FitBit doesn't monitor your sleep for medical problems, as a sleep clinic would.

Click here to learn more on how FitBit tracks sleep.

[rfl1954]

I have/had severe sleep apnea and use a CPAP machine.  I can not read the sleep patterns on the CPAP and compare to what I see on the Force sleep patterns but what I would say is the sleep clinic has the correct means to diagnose sleep apnea, not the fitbit device.  Maybe if you had not had your diagnosis and the fitbit what showing a lot of sleep disruptions, it would send you to the sleep clinic.  For me, the apnea events were severe and frequently I woke up with dibilitating headaches.   The CPAP has been a life saver..truly.  I've lost 100lbs since the diagnosis and I probably don't have as severe of a case, but I'm still using the CPAP.  Eventually after I lose my last 30lbs, I'll go back and get retested.

Short answer - don't be lulled into a false sense of security if the fitbit doesn't register apnea events.  That's not what it is designed for.

[JonS]

Being a Respiratory Therapist and Polysomograher for some 40 years. Sleep apnea occurs in all of us. The problem occurs when this syndrome interupts your daily routine. Such as falling asleep during day, feeling tired after you wake up, loud snoring that disrupts your partner or you wake up several times a night feeling short of breath.. Many factors can contribute to sleep apnea. Seeing your Dr. would help, if you feel you have any of these symptoms. Having mild symptoms seems to be normal, What they look at is what they call the AHI (Apnea Hypopnea index). This is the total number of apnea's that occur with hypopnea events divided by the total sleep time. An Apnea is an event that when there is no air flow through the nose or mouth, but the diaphragm is still moving for at least 30 seconds. A hypopnea event is when the breathing efforts are 50% below your normal efforts, which is usually recorded at the beginning of the test. If the AHI is at or below 5 then that's considered normal range. Most people fall into this range. That means you are having 5 events per hour. Which again is normal.  Most Dr's usually recommends weight loss, More exercise. Many experts say you should exercise at least 4 hrs a week for people who have greater then 10 AHI. 

[Mandaleigh]

^^^^^. Exactly what he said. I am also a Respiratory therapist and a Registered Polysomnography Tech.

Fitbit will not diagnose sleep apnea. Please see your physician if your sleep is affecting your daily activities.

[JaneS1]

My sleep pattern showed 9 awake times and that is with using a sleep apnea machine.

---

@luv2pugs wrote:

I've been to a sleep clinic and was diagnosed with mild and occasional apnea. I do not see any breaks in my sleep patterns on my fitbit that support that diagnosis. Would it show disruptions in my sleep pattern?

---

[BobbyB64]

While I agree that fitbit cannot diagnose OSA, I can tell you that my fitbit is behaving differently after having been diagnosed with OSA and been on CPAP treatment for a week now.  My fitbit never used to automatically read my sleep - I always had to force it into monitoring my sleep, then click the button again when I woke up.  Now, the fitbit is doing this automatically, and it's surprisingly accurate in registering how long I've been sleeping.  So, while it will not diagnose OSA, it appears to be able to provide another data point that you may have OSA.  In other words, if you're fitbit won't automatically track your sleep without your intervention, it may be a good idea to speak with your doctor about the possibility that you may have OSA. 

[Kevin516718]

Hi There,

I just got the charge 2 with HR and was wondering... I haven't used it for sleep yet. I was wondering since heart rate changes during sleep apnea episodes, if the Fitbit would at least tell you if you HR went up over night and could give you an idea of when and how many times? I also use a Snore App on my phone which records all snoring sounds - kinda scary!

[BobbyB64]

Hi Kevin -
There’s more to OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea) than just heart rate. I’m not sure how strong the correlation is between heart rate and AHI (apnea-hypopnea index, or number of time my airway is occluded per hour). For anyone, an AHI of <5 is considered normal (scary that even normal people stop breathing up to 5 times/hour), but heart rate isn’t part of that calculation; my CPAP machine reports my AHI (I went from 92 down to about 2 after I started CPAP) without monitoring my pulse. What I did notice is I woke up way fewer times using CPAP, which is something the FitBit will tell you. Like I said in my original post, if you’re waking up a lot during the night - and if you snore a lot - then it’s best to get checked out by a doctor to have it diagnosed correctly. 


Get Outlook for iOS

[Midico]

2 nights ago my CPAP unplugged (darn dog) and my device showed 140 instances of awake in a 7 hr period, all 40 seconds or less my diagnosis was 25 per hour, (I was exhausted all day) so it was fairly on par, last night with my CPAP I "only" had 33 instances during a 7 and an half hour night. while I won't consider my device sufficient for a diagnosis I can definitely see and monitor the impact on my sleep pattern with my CPAP. I'm getting a new Unit tomorrow (mine is over 8 years old) so I am waiting to see if the newer machine will yield better results.

[Dominique]

@Midico: some newer CPAP machines (e.g. Resmed Airsense 10) appear to store sleep data on an SD card and let the sleeper analyze it via a free desktop software. Check this other post by @SunsetRunner (who hopefully can chime in and comment) for more information if you are interested.

[SunsetRunner]

---

@Dominique wrote:

@Midico: some newer CPAP machines (e.g. Resmed Airsense 10) appear to store sleep data on an SD card and let the sleeper analyze it via a free desktop software. Check this other post by @SunsetRunner (who hopefully can chime in and comment) for more information if you are interested.

---

My Fitbit Ionic, as indicated, does provide a "quesstimated" analysis of your sleep if worn at night. However, for someone who has been diagnosed with OSA and is required to document compliance with CPAP usage, it's not to be compared in anyway with the data being produced by the CPAP device.

As a side note, it's my understanding that Fitbit has developed the platform with software which can integrate and utilize their wearable devices as a nocturnal pulse oximetry device. They haven't decided whether they're ready to turn that function on yet(?)

[Somnonaut]

I agree and wish to add, the typical sleep disrupting "brain activity" that is a result of sleep apnea do not necessarily show as movement activity, and are short lived, usually 3 to 15-ish seconds long. These "arousals" are differentiated from "awakenings" which usually take a greater whole body activation for typically a longer duration. Sleep science is a science, Fitbit is a consumer product based on a redcued aspect to sleep science borne out of a company in Ardsley, NY, Ambulatory Monitoring Inc. (AMI) who devised and patented the original motion detecting watch. The slew of consumer products do NOT use the same technology, but a scaled down, generalized version of it. 

[SanAngelo]

How do you see how many instances that you’ve woke up? I see the little red tick marks but is there a way to get more accurate count? Some of them are very thin and some are slightly thicker indicating longer time awake. It would be helpful to have actual numbers or be able to zoom in but I haven’t figured it out yet 

[SunsetRunner]

I totally concur with all the folks that recommended not to rely on your Fitbit for any medical occurrence. I also experienced apnea when I started my program at 225 lbs. I am now 180. As some have mentioned, weight loss is very important. I also finally purchased an adjustable bedframe, and by raising my mattress (head side), I have increased my uninterrupted sleep threefold.

---

@luv2pugs wrote:

I've been to a sleep clinic and was diagnosed with mild and occasional apnea. I do not see any breaks in my sleep patterns on my fitbit that support that diagnosis. Would it show disruptions in my sleep pattern?

---

[Kevin516718]

what frame did you get exactly! Nice Work to see and improvement!

[SunsetRunner]

This is what I bought - pricey, but adjusts flawlessly and also provides massage! It was amazing that by adjusting my neck angle, I woke up less frequently and had no neck or shoulder pain. I used to wake up 4-6 times a night - now, maybe once.

[kantamneni]

fit bit will not identify apena, but will it show that you woke up?

[spirilis]

Fwiw, I have been diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea (AHI of 16) and use a ResMed AirSense 10 Autoset (auto-titrating CPAP machine), with an SD card.  I just bought a Fitbit Charge 3 yesterday and last night was my first night with it.

I had a lot of little red ticks throughout the night that don't seem to correspond to any of the machine's registered apneas.  My AHI last night was 0.83, excellent numbers by any means, with four central apneas and 2 obstructive apneas.

I still wake up feeling less than refreshed and slightly zombie-like, and as my fitbit reported, I only got 34 minutes of Deep Sleep (normal being a bit over 1 hour according to the fitbit benchmark), so I feel the apneas have nothing to do with this and fostering better "Deep Sleep" is my therapeutic target at this point.

[kantamneni]

According to Fitbit the little red ticks are very small body movements. My AHI has been zero since I started using VPAP for central apnea on 6/2/19. I am a care take for my wife who has Alzheimers for five years which plays a part in my tired feeling. I'm monitoring with Fitbit Charge 3 the percentage of REM and deep sleep I get. Last night I had 15.2% REM and 11.3% deep and feeling very tired. I ave used RESMED S9 for four nights at 6 hours/night and seeing if I can bring percentages up, and I can feel better. Good luck with yours.

Moderator edit: remove all caps