Sleep depth tracking

[Pingu]

I'm on day 2 of fitbit ownership (ChargeHR) and i'm very impressed.  I earn points on my health insurance for reaching step goals each day and last night i found myself going out for a little walk just to top up to hit my goal for the day.  It's already changing my behaviour!

The only thing i'm not that impressed with is the sleep tracking.  I sometimes use an app called Sleep Cycle and it shows periods of deep sleep and light sleep, and it can also wake you up during the light sleep periods to make the transition to daytime easier.  I'm surprised that Fitbit can't recognise deep/light sleep based on the accelerometer data like my iPhone can.  Does anyone know if this is possible and if fitbit might consider developing this feature?

[G2EWS]

Hi Colin,

Thanks for your help.

Tried that, but the 'Update' button stays greyed out.

I am no longer on a 'Premium' account, I wonder if that is why?

Regards

Chris

[G2EWS]

Hmm!

I can see what the problem is.

I went to bed at 19:56 - not feeling well! Don't normally go at that time!

Stopped the fitbit at 07:01 in the morning.

It now has a highlight saying you cannot go over 24 hours! But it isn't! Very odd.

Regards

Chris

[Colinm39]

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@G2EWS wrote:

Hi Colin,

Thanks for your help.

Tried that, but the 'Update' button stays greyed out.

I am no longer on a 'Premium' account, I wonder if that is why?

Regards

Chris

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@G2EWS Why not manually create another Sleep record, the data is still there. Just go into your Log, Sleep area and give that a try.

[Colinm39]

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@G2EWS wrote:

Hmm!

I can see what the problem is.

I went to bed at 19:56 - not feeling well! Don't normally go at that time!

Stopped the fitbit at 07:01 in the morning.

It now has a highlight saying you cannot go over 24 hours! But it isn't! Very odd.

Regards

Chris

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@G2EWS You have to careful of which day you are in, in your case go back a day and it works.

[G2EWS]

Hi Colin,

Thanks again for your help.

Still no joy. I have yesterday's date for the start and the following day, ie today for the finish.

Regards

Chris

[Colinm39]

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@G2EWS wrote:

Hi Colin,

Thanks again for your help.

Still no joy. I have yesterday's date for the start and the following day, ie today for the finish.

Regards

Chris

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@G2EWS I would just go and create a sleep record, it worked for me, 7:56 in yesterday's date with the 7am finish time and update then you can swap between Sensitive and Normal..

You are trying to create an activity there, not your sleep record. I would leave the old sleep activity where it is because it won't affect calories etc.

See how you go...

[G2EWS]

Hi Colin,

Thanks again.

That was easy! Didn't realise all you had to do was put the time in and it would create the sleep based on the fitbit. That is very useful to know.

Regards

Chris

[G2EWS]

All I need now is that when I hover over the 'sleep' periods it shows how long the period was. I think it does this on my android phone, but not on computer.

Regards

Chris

[Colinm39]

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@G2EWS wrote:

Hi Colin,

Thanks again.

That was easy! Didn't realise all you had to do was put the time in and it would create the sleep based on the fitbit. That is very useful to know.

Regards

Chris

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@G2EWS Good, your data is always there when you wear the Fitbit, It has helped me because with 4 years under my belt and many Fitbits I tend to forget what I have advised. Fitbit make it hard by changing things as we go. I'm currently testing and logging for RHR issues which, when you are ready you will be asking the same questions.

Enjoy the journey because our dialogue will help many others.

Enjoy your weekend...

[Colinm39]

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@G2EWS wrote:

All I need now is that when I hover over the 'sleep' periods it shows how long the period was. I think it does this on my android phone, but not on computer.

Regards

Chris

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@G2EWS On Firefox the Red bars are one minute restless.. I Ctrl+ to enlarge the view when I examine that type of thing on the PC.

I agree the Android gives you the totals of every continuous minutes of "type".....awake/restless

[G2EWS]

I have suggested they add the feature to be able to determine/easily see when you reach REM, which is about 90 minutes for most people.

Chris

[rickpags53]

Colin,

Where the heck do you generate a graph like that !!

Boy, I don't know my a$$ from second base with this application !

Got a lot to learn.

Any info is appreciated.

BTW, sent you a PM.

Rick

[Colinm39]

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@rickpags53 wrote:

Colin,

Where the heck do you generate a graph like that !!

Boy, I don't know my a$$ from second base with this application !

Got a lot to learn.

Any info is appreciated.

BTW, sent you a PM.

Rick

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@rickpags53 The Charge HR does not record Sleep Activity as a record when you have pushed the button. All you get is the sleep log records. Even during the day if you have pushed the button and Fitbit feels you are at rest, you may find that activity is in the sleep log. If so, go into the sleep log and edit the activity and change it to an activity record.

To create the one minute graphs as shown in my posts you have to create a Custom Activity and then log the Activity with any time frame you chose.

The negative offset, it treats it like a manual activity and averages your activity calories over the time period and you lose the Active Minutes.

After I have created the activity manually, observed, analysed and maybe print I then delete the activity.

I use Snagit to capture the screen, add notes to the graphics and print from there. Perfect print presentation..  In other posts you will see I have created a 24 hour graph as well. The sad thing with the presentation from Fitbit with the one minute graphs you get no time bar like the 5 minute bloggy graph.

We are all here to help..

[wildweeder]

For the ChargerHR you can switch from regular sleep detection to sensitive sleep detection. My sleep/wake is much more accurate on the sensitive setting. I spend 8hours in bed, and many of those nights, I'm awake/restless for significant chunks. Those nights are followed by days where I just don't function at top clarity.

[KeepingUpWithMe]

I find myself shaking my wrist at 3am when I'm awake so that the duration shows minutes awake and not restless.  I think the restless minutes are really awake minutes.  Would be nice to improve the 'awake' tracking.

[hbn5]

How do you set up your fitbit where you can see your actually HR at different times during the night? Just got my fitbit and can't figure it out.

[Colinm39]

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@hbn5 wrote:

How do you set up your fitbit where you can see your actually HR at different times during the night? Just got my fitbit and can't figure it out.

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@hbn5 The only way I have found you can see an accurate graph of your HR is to create a Custom Activity.

You do this by going into your Log, Activities and use a description like HR Graph and type that into the search box at the bottom and then click Create Custom Activity.

You then click what you created to the right and fill in your time period and you will get a result like below

If you decide to examine your 24 hours you will need to delete the activity if you are into Active Minutes because this function averages your daily calories over the 24 hours.

I don't delete the sleep graph because it has little bearing on the calories because you at rest.

[bgrace]

I agree

[KeepingUpWithMe]

Hi and welcome to fit bit.  Mine is an HR and I use my the app on my iphone dashboard the next day to see how much I did sleep, or was restless.  The dashboard has a subsection 'how did you sleep?' and a graph that shows awake time in red, restless time and actual sleep.  I found mine reporting time as restless when I was actually up out of bed.  Hope this helps!

[wildweeder]

Regarding sleep as an activity and heart rate detail --

Setting sleep as an activity is the way I can view my heart rate over a period of time, rather than an all-night average. Seeing my heart-rate adds a bit more info to my sleep cycle in hindsight; I am a very restless sleeper, I always wake up feeling like I want to stay in bed longer(part of the ADD/ADHD issues), and generally feel ready to roll around noon -- but sometimes not. I check the heart rate to get a sense of what part(s) of the night may have been problematic, and if my "sleep hygiene" steps are helping...or not.