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Which sleep sensitivity is recommended?

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Which sleep sensitivity setting is recommended? Normal or sensitive?

 

 

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity. 

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160 REPLIES 160

No one really seemed to answer your real question, so I'll give it a shot.  Everyone moves or jerks in their sleep so if you have your eyes closed, your dropcam wouldn't know if you were asleep or awake.  IF you are asleep or dozing, these jerks are called periodic limb movements (PLMs).  Do you remember occassionally jerking and coming awake suddenly?  As I said these are normal, and sometimes you just come awake for a second and then are right back to sleep, sometimes it just brings you up to the lightest sleep level and then you go back down.  So even though you say you are clearly awake or moving around on the dropcam, you might not really be awake.  (of course I may be misinterpreting how your dropcam is working).  The only way you would know is if you are awake enough to write down the time.  If you can't do that, you can't count yourself as really awake.

 

Whether this is a problem or not or affects your sleep amount depends on how often these PLMs happen.  Some people have them a couple times a night, others are aflicted all night long with 100's of them. It would take the full wireup of a medical sleep study to know because they are also measuring your brain waves.  The PLMs are one of the things they report.

 

As far as waking at 3 am, that's a common side effect of many sleep medications and even other medications (like ropinorole).  If you go back to sleep, probably no problem.  I'd ask your doctor about your other medication side effects (if you are taking any other).   Your need for sleep can drop as you get older, so it may be that 6 hrs of actual sleep is enough for you.  If you aren't sleepy during the day or dropping off while driving, then I wouldn't worry too much about it.  Your body is adjusting to what you need.

 

Like many others responding, I think you are very lucky.  My average is 3 hrs of sleep, I have a high number of PLMs, plus RLS so I often don't fall sleep until 3 am, before that I'm just laying there trying to not move my legs and  after going to sleep I'm jerking around.   Last night I got 1 hr 5 min.  Because of the PLMs I always show a couple of hundred steps in the morning.  I check this by charging my flex at night sometimes, then it shows no steps in the am.   If I set it to sleep mode while charging, it shows a wonderful night sleep because it didn't move!  I know this isn't enough sleep for me because I'm always getting drowzy during the day and feeling like I want to curl up underneath my office desk for a nap.  I have to be careful in the morning to get enough coffee or I'm having those blank moments for a sec or two  (called micro-sleep)  while driving to work. 

 

Aside from the personal comments, I hope this helps give you some insights as to why you aren't getting the sleep efficiency for what you want. If you are really worried, then go to a sleep doc and get a sleep test.

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Thank you so much! Overall, I feel well. The only meds that I am on are synthroid 125 mcg; I have no thyroid and tiredness is something that plagues me often. The fact that I have become more active has decreased how it affects me, and I find myself having more energy overall. I just found it very odd. It appears that do have these PLM's several times a night and it continues for long periods of time. (I am an active "dreamer" 🙂 ) I just found it very odd that the normal setting shows me getting 90-100% sleep efficiency and sensitive shows me up all the time. Again, thank you very much! I love that this community really seems to show support and provide answers. I'm happy to be a part of this community!
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Long term use of sleep medications often reduces the effectivieness which may explain the frequent restlessness recorded.  I have been using the sleep tracking feature to help improve my sleep efficiency and reduce my reliance on prescription sleep medication which I had been taking for several years.  Comparing my sleep log results on and off medication showed that they were virtually the same, the only difference was that when I took the medication I didn't remember being restless or waking up as often.  I am currently working with a sleep therapist through the sleep clinic to retrain my sleep pattern but have found the book "Say Goodnight to Insomnia" by Gregg Jacobs even more valuable, it is a great guide to understanding sleep patterns, medications, and strategies to improve sleep.  

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@kd6175 wrote:

Comparing my sleep log results on and off medication showed that they were virtually the same, the only difference was that when I took the medication I didn't remember being restless or waking up as often.


That has been exactly my observation as well.  I was trying to figure out why I "feel" like I sleep better when on medications, and I think you're right...I just don't remember being restless.

 

Interestingly, my sleep has improved over the past few months according to the "time asleep" recorded by Fitbit.  After analyzing with Excel, I put a trendline on it and it appears to represent about a 10% increase over time.  The only correlation I have been able to make is with weight loss.   Here is my exported Fitbit data (a premium feature) showing my sleep vs. weight trend for the past 4+ months.  Aside from this, you'd never know I have been on and off sleep meds during the same period.

 

sleep vs weight.JPG

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Thank you.
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I've been known to sleep with ear plugs and an eye mask.  It does take a little bit to get used to the ear plugs, but this helps me block out noises besides my own breathing (white noise) and focus on sleeping.

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flguy,

I so appreciate your sharing in this forum....AND if I'm reading your chart right, you have done an AWESOME job with weight loss too. Go you!

Marianne

Marianne
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HighD,

I agree. I usually wake up very early. I started wearing a face mask and have been able to sleep as late as 8 am ish give or take. The darkness really helped a lot! It's not a slam dunk, but I was super happy when it happened.

 

Someone else I talked to uses dark blinds.

 

Marianne

Marianne
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I had a sleep study last weekend. Was rigged up with wires all over. Their rating of my sleep efficiency was a few points higher than the fitbit on sensitive setting.
Fitbit = 71% for 274 minutes asleep
Sleep study = "During the study the TRT was 403 min and the TST was 316 min resulting in a sleep efficiency of 78%. " don't know what TST or TRT mean...
Marianne
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thanks the article was helpful

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Oh my gosh you just described me. I have tried everything, Ambien, benadryl, melationin, and am not on Restoril. I can get to sleep but can't stay asleep. 

 

The Flex says I am getting about 4 hours of sleep a night and I feel like it and have for years. I had brain aneurysm surgery four years ago and since then my sleep has been horrible. 

 

If you figure it out let me know. My appointment with the sleep specialist is in January (first opening).

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Although you are not aware you are under stress, your body may know otherwise. Waking up between 2-4am is indicating adrenal problems (may not show on normal tests). Dr.Lam has heaps of info you might be interested in, especially about the adrenals and sleeping (http://www.drlam.com/articles/adrenal_fatigue_and_sleep.asp). I would always go the natural way first. Do not despare, there is plenty of help out there!

 

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I have a similar problem. Anti-anxiety meds helped way more than sleep meds. Not exactly sure why, but Cymbalta was the magic bullet for me. I am not depressed or anything like that, it just seems to regulate my sleep.

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so glad to see this post - I know I tend to wake around 3 a.m.  but on the sensetive mode I'm finding I get about 4-6 hrs. of sleep on a regular basis - I don't remember waking most of the time so I'm guessing I'm just restless - but I know a good night's sleep is necessary for weight loss and I am struggling in that area.  I was diagnosed with Graves disease but can't take the meds anymore due to allergic reactions - and am looking to meet with a holistic dr. (main reason I got the fitbit so I can show the new dr. the trends and where I struggle).  I'm going to ask about issues with the adrenal glands as well as some of the symptons are similar to the Graves symptoms I tend to show.

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Hello, you may have already received a few replies that helped but I had to chime in with my experience and encourage you to look into it. I, like you, can immediately fall asleep but staying asleep is another problem. Everything you described sounds exactly like what I experienced. So, I went to my primary care provider when I was having trouble staying awake at long traffic lights. I thought, "could this be narcolepsy?" but realized it wasn't because as long as I was moving or doing something I could stay awake for many many hours. Being in the military we have done several 32-36 hour missions and had no problems staying awake or alert there. Here's what my amazing discovery was. My doctor prescribed a sleep study and I found out I had mild sleep apnea during light sleep (8 awakenings per hour, 5 is considered normal) and moderate to sever during REM (I had 25 awakenings in REM which meant I didn't stay in REM very long). Another key to my exhaustion was my O2 saturation levels. I was constantly hovering between 82 an 90%. Hypoxia is considered anything below 95%. Needless to say I came back for another sleep study but this time with a CPAP and the study showed I had one (that's a single episode!) per hour and a constant O2 sat of 98% on room air. My motion decreased to almost nil and I stayed in REM for long periods of time.

I thought I would hate having this thing in my bedroom and wondered what it would do to my wife having this thing on but she swears she doesn't even hear it and loves the fact that I have ten times more energy to complete her "honey-do" list (not a great benefit if your honey do list is as long as mine 🙂

If you haven't done so already and you can get your Doctor to prescribe the study it is well worth it. If you want to do it scientifically but on the cheap go to Walmart or any sports store and buy an inexpensive pulse oximeter (about $35) and wear it on your finger tip all night. You'll have to have your wife stay up to check on it periodically and she can also check on your breathing pattern at the same time to see if it is normal or absent (I had several periods of not breathing for 1:00 to 2:00 minutes at a time that was preceeded by ever shallowing breaths that curtailed off to no breathing at all). With this data you may be able to determine or negate a potentially serious health issue that I have suffered through for my entire life but didn't know it. Hope this helps!

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Hi Nubby86,

I think I am also struggling with adrenal gland problems. I have been seeing a therapist for 2 years, and am gaining a number of skills in managing stress while I am awake, but I believe that my adrenal glands over-fire at night. Can you tell me what homeopathic remedies have helped you?

Ryan
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mine is on sentstive and I have issues with sleeping in the first place one of the main reasons i got the fitbit to help track my sleeping habbits, becasue im so tired during the day. Im worried becasue i only get  any were from three to four hours of sleep sleep but im in bed for like ten, i am going to bring it up to my dr i just dont want to go on any more meds i feel that i am on too many for my age. 

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I have similar issues; some non-drug things that help: don't eat within 3
hours of bedtime; sprinkle a little lavender oil or cologne on your pillow;
use a white noise machine or find an app you can play on your phone.
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Waking around 3:00AM can be a drop in blood sugar. Try a smal snack that includes carb, protein and fat right before bed and see if that helps. If you can't get back to sleep sometimes just a few bites of a good snack can help normalize blood sugar and help you get back to sleep. (This is also my first post so I hope I stayed on topic too. :))
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At GNC there is a melatonin supplement that is time released. I have the same problem with not being able to stay asleep so melatonin never worked for me but I've heard good things and it's natural.

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