Cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Sleep tracker accuracy

ANSWERED
I was wondering how accurate the flex sleep tracker is. I know I don't sleep well, but I am normally getting 5 hrs of sleep or less. I go to bed between 10 and 11 and don't get up until 7:30. Is the accuracy off or am I really not sleeping that well at night?
Best Answer
46 REPLIES 46

Hi. Good question, but no, it is not meant to be an IQ test, although it probably does look like one.

 

I am trying to use a metaphor to make my point about the deeper question I have about just how accurate the FitBit Sleep Tracking is or.... is not. In the above picture, the blue square represents the actual sleep event we Track using the FitBit, and the two rulers represent two different measurement systems, one is the FitBit itself, the other is a medically and scientifically valid/reliable system used in hospitals. But which one is which? In reality, are the two measuring systems different or the same? (clearly I have represented them as not being the same in my picture above, but only to make the metaphor clear, but this may not be the case in reality, as the FitBIt and external measuring system may in fact be the same  - but we need to know).

 

My point here is meant to be simple, but the underlying question does have implications - without an externally verified valid and reliable measure, we assume the 'FitBit ruler' (to use the metaphor) is accurate, but without the external verification (comparison) we do not know if the FitBit ruler is too short or too long, and as such we will not know if it under-represents or over represents the item it is measuring 'Sleep'. I am over simplifying this because it is not just a case of measuring overall 'length' or duration of sleep, it is also important that a Sleep Tracker knows and recognises sleep behaviour and can discern it from other behaviours whilst asleep. For example, people who are asleep but walk in their sleep - technically they are asleep (part of brain function) but they are in fact bodily active, so how is this represented by a Sleep Tracker? Too much to ask of a wrist band perhaps for sure, but the underlying point is good - how accurately is sleep actually represented by the measures FitBit trackers can use?

 

I would just like to see some external verification data of the FitBit Sleep traking accuracy, that is all. FitBit may well be accurate, and I am certainly not writing this to put anyone off the Sleep Tracking function -  in a way I am trying to achieve the reverse personally - I really want to believe in the thing because it is the main reason I bought my FitBit Charge HR, and I believe that if FitBit shared the validity and reliability data with us we then will know for sure and can relax.I look at my sleep log every time it is measured so it is very important to me, but I cannot ignore the question about just how accurately is it measuring my sleep and how would I know if it was or wasn't?

 

If I go back to my metaphor of measuring one thing with two rulers, then FitBit - please show us how close in length the 'external ruler' is to the 'FitBit ruler' when it comes to sleep tracking measurement. Share the validity and reliability data and what you used as your external verification. Please.

Best Answer
My sleep tracker is accurate most days, I've gotten use to that and have stopped trying to get a better read.
Best Answer
0 Votes

Good to know.

 

How do you know your Sleep Tracker is accurate most days?

Best Answer
0 Votes
I write down the time I go to bed, and I check the clock when I get up. Then I check the Fitbit dashboard on my tablet to see how much sleep time is recorded. Most days it's accurate, other days it shows less time than I actually slept
Best Answer
0 Votes

I would call thier customer service line. It's been my experience that they are knowledgeable, patient and want to help.

 

 

Best Answer
0 Votes

OK - good idea. I will when I get some time and the World Clocks coinicide enough. I assume they are on USA time?

Best Answer
0 Votes

Actually I got here today because I got an email which said there were 178 questions on this issue and I was interested.  But can find NO place where THAT discussion is taking place. 

 

CobaltStargazer - I share your concerns and your reason for purchasing the Charge HR is essentially the same as mine.  I'm no longer a jogger (those running magazines lie about it not harming your knees - after 30 years, meniscus removal in both knees ended that) but I do other things now, I've a Tread Climber (which the Fitbit can NOT track at all, not even HR accurately, not even close - no matter where I wear or what mode I use it in), it is more accurate on walks, wildly inaccurate except for time on bike rides. 

 

But - I've had 25 years of sleep issues.  The problem is never falling asleep and never has been, it is staying asleep.  There is no medication that treats that - well there is a current ad for one that says it does, but it doesn't.  I've been on various medications for all of those years, none of them work.  No homeopathic aid is of any use whatsoever.  In July, in consultation with my sleep medicine specialist, I stopped all medications - I'm about to be 67 and there are contraindications for all of them as you age - I expect to hit 100, but I would like to be able to sleep a bit of that time.  Currently I am getting 2 to 4.5 hours a night, almost NONE of that solid sleep, 18 plus times waking and/or restless. 

 

I've tried the normal and sensitive settings.  I've tried meditation, I've tried everything.  I go to bed, I read until 11 or so, fall asleep instantly and by 3:30 at the latest, I am up and annoyed enough that I either get on the Tread Climber or head out the door for a 6 mile walk before work.  I'm at a loss here.  Sleep pyschology is bunk, find your happy place indeed.  The "evidence" of the Fitbit, well, I don't know what that can do as there are no medications for this and behavioral therapy simply doesn't work - at least in 25 years it has never worked for me. 

 

This does not mean I am not tired.  I am.  I simply don't sleep.  Everything I read tells me this alone will kill me.  Some days I think, good, at least I will get some bleeping rest.  I am open to anything, but medicine has nothing to offer, meditation doesn't either, homeopathy is a joke, so what else is there?  If you or anyone has an idea, I'd love to hear it.  As for confirming or not your suspicions, I can tell you that I wondered about that too, the accuracy, but the Fitbit does mirror my physical memory.  It fits my 25 years of experience with sleeping issues.  So now I have confirmation.  And the question is still, so what good does that do?  I don't want the question, I wanted confirmation, but most of all I wanted an answer.  The one thing I can't find. 

If today brings even one choice your way
Choose to be a Bringer of the Light. :^) gene
Best Answer
0 Votes

@genej101, have you spent the night wired up in a sleep lab/clinic?  I ask because my sleep patters used to match yours, and possibly worse; I checked myself into a clinic and discovered severe sleep apnea (which is now controlled by a CPAP).

Best Answer
0 Votes

Yes, I did all that.  No apnea, no restless leg, nothing at all except no sleep either.  They tossed me out at 3 but there was enough data to rule out apne and restless leg.  Also did a sleep psychologist for 6 months with absolutely no results at all.  And have tried every kind homeopathic remedy ever found.  And have tried Ambien, Ambien CD, Lunesta, Sonata, Rozerum and Belsomra.  That last is the "new" one that is supposed to keep you from waking.  Have tried all three strengths of it.  None worked.  I do know people who use CPAP's, not my issue, for which I'm grateful, though it is no consolation.  :^)

If today brings even one choice your way
Choose to be a Bringer of the Light. :^) gene
Best Answer
0 Votes
Hello fellow CPAP traveler.

Yes, I have spent 2 nights and one day in a sleep lab. But before I did my first sleep lab test I did a "home study". After my general practitioner got the results he called and said that I had one of the worst cases of sleep apnea he's ever seen. So, I found a sleep doctor who put me on a CPAP in October of last year, and though I feel a little better - I'm less grumpy / angry - I'm still not back to my old cheerful self.

The good news is that with CPAP I don't wake up gasping for air like I used to. That was scary! The bad new is that positive results are coming very slowly ... It's not a "ramp" like I thought it would be - there are hills and valleys, good nights and bad nights. My sleep doc asked me to get a Fitbit, which I did. It tells me about my "sleep efficiency" - i.e. hours in bed vs. hours of actual sleep. I am running between 50% and 70%. Sleep doc wants me to be at at least 80% - 85%.

I'm not taking any medications, and I don't want to. I have found that exercise and mediation help. So does using a Nettie Pot (nasal rinse) every night to clear my sinuses.

Hope my ramblings help. Glad the CPAP is helping you. And good luck to you, whoever you are.
Best Answer
0 Votes

Hey @MarkCPAPguy, when I did my sleep clinic it was discovered I was experiencing an airway blockage event every 45 seconds, or, said another way, 75 times per hour.  From my perspective, that wasn't the worst of it; the worst bit was having my airway blocked so badly my body would be trying to inhale so strongly it would suck the contents of my stomach up my throat and down into my lungs.  To make it worse, I'd wake up and know I'd have to continue inhaling the acid and stuff from my stomach so I could have enough air in my lungs to then cough it back up.  Good times!

 

The good news for me at least was the CPAP brought instant relief, literally.  For the last nine years I've lived with my CPAP, and with the exception of maybe five or six nights where traveling or something had me separated from my machine, I've used it all night, every night since I got it in the fall of 2007.  Additional good news for me is, per my Fitbit, a "bad" night shows a sleep efficiency of 87 and a good night is more like last night:

SleepEfficiency.png

 

Do you have a clear feel for what your sleep issues are?  Is there an issue with how your mask fits, or is it something in your sinuses which continues to resist the extra pressure of the CPAP?

Best Answer
0 Votes
No, I've never been to a sleep lab.
Best Answer
0 Votes
I don't have a problem sleeping, never have. I bought my fit but to mainly track my movement, but decided to also track sleep once I got it. I noticed that I'm sleeping longer than is reflected from my fit bit.
Best Answer
Some people think that the info provided by Fitbit may or may not be all that accurate. The Fitbit data is based on movement, so it's not based on the accurate data that would get in a sleep lab. My sleep doctor said that it's just a different way for him to look at the sleep info. He's been a sleep doctor now for thirteen years, so apparently he sees some value - some validity in it.
Best Answer
Hi - Wow - what a story you have! A CPAP success story - thanks for sharing. … in response to your question - yes, I think I'm on top of it, and my sleep doctor and his PA are all over it, studying my readings, adjusting the pressure, changing my mask, etc. Events range from 6 - 60 per hour. I finally have a mask that works for me - that took eight months. It is slow going for me, but I am feeling better, slowly but surely...
Best Answer

I'd contactFitbit - their customer service has been very good for me.  Good luck..

 

Best Answer

Call Fitbit and ask them. That's my idea.  Or Google it...  Good luck.

Best Answer

@genej101 I can see whay you are searching and are frustrated at not finding a sleep solution.That question is beyond my knowledge, although some people do get benefit from hypnotherapy. I did study some hypnosis myself some years ago as an offshoot of getting qualified in something called NLP. I am aware that for some people even the titles 'NLP' and 'hypnosis'  get them reaching for the crucifix or whatever (metaphorically speaking) as they are cynical about them. Others have found usefulness in the approaches and I have to say that I have witnessed some really interesting turnaround moments for people as a result of trying various techniques related to NLP and hypnosis. I don't buy it all, but I do see and know how the deft use of language in ones own mind and various elements of mind-body conditioning that one can apply can actually work. I suppose the trick is to find someone whom you trust to walk you through such techniques to see if they work for you. I have been astonished at just how powerful the use of language can be in influencing people (and for that I include 'self') in making significant changes to patterns in life.I myself, just to illustrate the point, managed to get over a fear of flying by applying another simple technique I learnt from an NLP course I was on. I can't prove the techniques was the reason why I changed my attitude towards flying, but I can say that something changed after I did it, and I felt very different when on a plane, so I have decided to remain open minded about some of these approaches.I don't know much about it but I believe that Cognitive Behaviouiral threapy ('CBT') is a more mainstream version of what NLP can sometimes acheive, but you may already have had some of that from your psychologist, I don't know.

 

I have drifted away (pardon the unintentional pun) from sleep specifically here but wanted to just raise the possibility of hypnotherapy, or something akin to it from the work of NLP etc.

Best Answer

I do know something about NLP - Tony Robbins, a couple decades ago, or more.  Neuro Linguistic Programming.  Sort of a more developed positive self talk thing as I recall.  Not ineffective for some people but I never found his tapes helpful and I know he is or was being sued for that fire coal walking thing he's been doing forever which apparently didn't go well at an event recently.  I've done CBT - not helpful.  I find the Fitbit helpful, at least its record.  It is very different using the sensitive and normal settings, very, very different. The normal setting is almost encouraging but the really large distance between the two makes one wonder which is right or if the answer is in the middle.  I've been working on learning meditation, that seems to be having an effect somehow, a month into that, I am sleeping a bit longer and lots better (but then that's the normal setting), last night 6 hours at 99% efficiency.  The good part is I fall asleep instantly almost, I work, but never nap.  So, I am up between 2 and 4 and workout until 6 or 6:30, then work, work, then maybe some more activity after work, errands, almost no tv, I do like to read so I do that for an hour or two right before bed - boring life, but it is what it is at my age. But when I turn out the light, I am asleep in a minute or two.  It is the staying asleep that has been the problem.  I haven't been able to think myself through that and medication has failed miserably, which maybe isn't a bad thing in the long run, better sleep naturally, if I can ever get to it, than medicated (and who knows what long term effect drugs have anyway) for sure.  Thanks for your not.  :^)

If today brings even one choice your way
Choose to be a Bringer of the Light. :^) gene
Best Answer
0 Votes
I can only tell you for myself it's been very accurate. I can't give you 100% but I'll at least say 95%. I know how well I do our don't sleep and my tablet is always spot on. I feel very good when I discuss the results of a problem with my doctor
Best Answer