About Sleep Cycles Accuracy

[cmae1186]

My fitbit seems to think I get little to no REM or Deep Sleep. Is this happening to anyone else? I have a sleep disorder, but it involves sleeping too much and doesn't result in non REM or Deep Sleep. I just have trouble trusting my results and was wondering whether anyone else had the same feelings. 

Moderator edit: subject for clarity

[Retroruth]

Yes me! I'm often tired and have memory problems and that's why I got a fitbit with a detailed sleep tracker. However I'm really alarmed at how little rem and deep sleep I seem to be getting! I've tried all the sleep hygiene tips I can find on the net, and been following Paul McKenna's book but it's still as bad. I'm hoping that the fitbit sleep tracker is inaccurate as I don't know what else I can do. I really don't think I suffer from sleep apnoea. I'd love to know others experiences. 

[HipsDontLy]

Hello!

So getting too little REM sleep can be an area for concern, but so can getting too much. Ideally, you guys have been in a sleep lab and know how much REM you guys are sleeping. Barring that (those things can get quite expensive), if you're reaching about 20-25% REM sleep, that's quite typical (give or take a few percentages to account for variance and the fact that we're all unique).

When you guys say "little" or "low" REM sleep, how much are you guys talking about?

Sources: https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Understanding-Sleep

https://blog.fitbit.com/sleep-stages-explained/

The fitbit link is a more simplified version of understanding sleep stages, since Fitbit also simplifies the conception of sleep stages for our Charge 2.

[Retroruth]

Hiya, thanks for responding.

I sleep about 8 hours (I know, lucky me!) And last night for example I got 1 hour 38 mins rem (16%) and 29 mins deep.

Previous night 1hr 15 rem (13%) and 59 mins deep. 

It often doesn't tell me percentages as so low. 

Maybe I wear my tracker too loosley??

Thanks!

[HipsDontLy]

Hello again,

16% REM is quite fuzzy, that 13% is markedly low indeed. If you say it often doesn't say percentages are low, I'm assuming that getting less REM is recent? If so, how long ago was it saying you were getting more REM? Any changes in your sleep environment/household (like, are people coming in and out like a college dorm or shared apartment, are there moving vehicles/trains/trucks that travel late at night that wake you up sometimes, etc). 

Wearing the tracker too loosely can throw off your sleep stage readings; your device may actually revert to the old sleep stages screen if you get poor heart rate monitoring. The issue is, it'd be hard to tell where the line is drawn between "inaccurate sleep stages" and "won't measure them at all" if you're wearing it too loosely. Still, couldn't hurt to tighten it a bit if you can comfortably.

[Retroruth]

Hiya, I've only had the Alta hr for less than a week so don't know if it's a recent problem. I suspect it's long-standing as I'm often tired no matter how much sleep I've had. That's why I got the device with sleep stages.

I'll try wearing the tracker a bit tighter and lower on my wrist and also hope it's​ just a temporary issue. I need to give it longer I guess.

Thanks again.

Ruth

[cmae1186]

 Like negligible deep sleep. Which is funny because I think my sleep disorder typically results in much MORE deep sleep than necessary. This is just an example from last night 

[Retroruth]

That looks similar to mine. I've been wearing mine quite loosely and further up my arm. Going to try more tightly and nearer the wrist. I think it's probably not causing the problem though but just wanted to rule it out. I get really tired a lot of the time and think it's maybe because I'm not getting enough deep and REM sleep. I don't know what to do about it though!

[Piglet612]

Have you found any rhyme or reason to your sleep? Mine is similar to yours and it's stressing me out a bit. I know in prior models you can change the sensitiviy mode but that doesn't appear to be the case with the Charge 2. Last night I slept a total of 6hrs 20min and got a total of 24min deep sleep I'm exhausted and I don't know if I'm really tired or if it's a mind thing "knowing" I only had 24min of deep sleep. This has been they type of sleep report I've been seeing since they rolled out the cycles. Is something wrong with mine? Is something wrong with me? I'm getting stressed over this. I wear it where I'm suppose to. Ugh, I guess really venting but hoping others have insight. Thank you! -Piglet612

[HipsDontLy]

What sensitivity setting do you have it on? Or rather, what hand is your dominant hand, what arm do you wear it to sleep, and does your Fitbit settings reflect those?

[Piglet612]

There isn't a sensity setting, correct? I wear it on my non dominant hand
(left) which is reflected in app. I have tried it on my other wrist to
sleep and had same results. The firmware prior to the sleep cycles did not
show the crazy sleep that I'm getting with this new version.

[HipsDontLy]

If you wear it on your non-dominant hand and the app reflects this setting, it's more sensitive and will pick up steps more easily to compensate for the idea that a non-dominant hand will not move as much as a dominant hand. If you switch it to your dominant hand, but leave the app setting for non-dominant hand, you may pick up even more movement. Wearing it on your dominant hand and switching the app setting to reflect this reduces sensitivity for steps (I've noticed that as I move while I sleep, I wake up with less "added" steps if I wear it on my dominant hand). Try giving that a shot, it could make your fitbit less likely to interpret movement during the night as always "light" sleep.

[rainbow4abc]

Under personal information there is a sleep sensitivity setting:   normal or sensitive

[Lotteom]

According to my tracker I do get enough deep sleep but get very very little REM sleep most of the nights. It's around 5 % wich is about 30 - 50 minutes. I also hope my fitbit is wrong. If not, is this something to worry about? And what might cause this little REM sleep?

[Piglet612]

I have it on normal, was hoping it was sent on sensitive. I did set it to sensitive and then back to normal hoping that would trigger something. Also, slept with it on sensitive mode and it yielded similar results.

[Shirleyy]

My Fitbit shows I only get 2-4 hours a night sleep. I wonder if it's because I'm always restless and turn a lot?

[Rich_Laue]

@Shirleyy 2-4 hours of sleep out of how many hours of total sleep time.

Im averaging 3:58 hours of sleep, but in the last 5 days i only averaged 5 total hors a night of sleep. 20% awake time is considered norma, when you add in the micro periods of awake time.

[MiloK95014]

Charge 2,non dominant wrist, high sensitivity. REM averages 12minuets a night,some zero, some as “high” as 30 minutes. Sometimes reported asleep as little as  3 hours, sometimes as much as 6, average Around 5.5. My doctor is under the impression Fitbit numbers are “remarkably unreliable” based on clients whose sleep they’ve studied with the fancy devices. I’ve decided to think of Fitbit as relatively internally accurate but nit realistically calibrated - so I read my numbers as a relative scale WRT sleep, dream, awake times. I wish I had accurate actual times tho...

[carver333]

I get about 6% REM at night and I’ve never had sleeping problems except sometimes getting up to pee. That’s about 20 minutes since I get an average of 8hrs 2mins a night. I figure it’s just wildly inaccurate since I don’t seem irritated when I wake up like it says I should. I get sleepy everyday about 3 pm but who doesn’t. Don’t fret the little toy on your wrist. If you’re actually worried a doctor is the person to discuss that with not a forum. 

[Gee_Yo]

I see this thread started a while back, but wanted to share a similar experience.

My deep sleep and light sleep times commonly fall within (and sometimes exceed) the benchmark averages. However, my REM percentages are so low, there is often no percentage reading and it falls well below the benchmarks on the bar graph.

Initially I was concerned, then I thought my charge 2 might be inaccurate. I decided not to worry about it too much; since that won't help me sleep (!).

I had extremely bad sleep for a number of years when I lost my wife to cancer.  For me, many of the tips for better sleeping help a lot... including guided meditations, occasional magnesium supplement (I use something called "Calm"), not exercising right before bed, eating better, etc. etc.

I still hope that the Charge 2 is wrong and I'm getting more REM. Interested to see more responses in this thread.