Arousals/Awakenings

[ForecasterJason]

According to Fitbit's article here, it is normal to wake up briefly between 10-30 times each night. The source for that stat is based on a study done on EEG arousals. Now if my understanding is correct, scientifically arousals are counted as being under 30 seconds, with awakenings being more than 30 seconds. Fitbit's awakenings count 30 seconds or greater.

So what I'm getting at is, it seems to me that there are inconsistencies in the science being presented here. In other words, I have to question whether it's really normal to have actual awakenings of 30+ seconds more than literally a few times per night. I've heard that it's normal after going through sleep cycles, but most people wouldn't be going through more than 6 or 7 of those per night. 

Does what I'm saying make any sense?

[WavyDavey]

Hi @ForecasterJason,

Not totally sure I get your point. I didn't see in the Fitbit article where it defines awake as 30 seconds or more?

It's not totally clear how long a waking period needs to be for fitbit to add it as awake time? Or did I miss something?

Regardless, what leaves you to conclude that fitbit's tracking of awake time is not accurate? When I look at my sleep chart, I see a couple of awake times that look significant, but mostly they're just tiny dots on the graph. It seems reasonable that a person wouldn't be conscious of those.

20 periods of 30 second awakenings is only 10 minutes, which sounds reasonable to me.

@ForecasterJason, could you go into more detail about your post? I'm interested in it.

[ForecasterJason]

For all of my sleep graphs, awake instances show up as being a minimum of 30 seconds. Since that's how mine have always shown up, I was assuming that's the minimum time increment that it picks up an awakening as. 

What I'm saying is that (to my knowledge) the scientific study cited by Fitbit is based on awakenings being well under 30 seconds, but yet Fitbit counts awakenings being 30 seconds or greater. So while the study suggests that 20-25 awakenings of (for example) 20 seconds each may be normal, what the study does not suggest is how many awakenings of 30+ seconds (as Fitbit counts it) is actually normal. I would be curious to see what the norm for awakenings of at least 30 seconds is, although from some charts I've seen it seems like it is very few. 

[WavyDavey]

Hi @ForecasterJason,

Thanks for the explanation. I see what you're saying now. Not sure what the answer is though. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chime in on the topic.

[elavizadeh]

Hey Jason,

I don't have the answer to your question, but if you feel like you have an unusual amount of awakenings (30+ seconds), please get tested for Sleep Apnea and/or other sleep disorders. These things are more common than you think.

Evan