Bathroom trips, hitting the snooze button, and a question

[Tex66]

Hi, there! New Fitbit (Flex) user here. I have trouble falling asleep due to anxiety and I toss and turn a lot, so I set my tracker to Sensitive. I've only used it for two nights, but so far, I feel that I am getting pretty accurate data.

Last night, I woke up to go to the bathroom and so I turned off sleep mode before getting out of bed, then turned it back on. The tracker recorded two sleep events, which I find more accurate for me than if I'd let it record the bathroom trip as a regular awake-but-in-bed event.

I'm a snooze-button pusher, so each morning, the tracker records multiple restless events as I'm rolling over to hit snooze, going back to sleep, then hitting snooze again. I think tomorow morning, I will exit sleep mode the first time my alarm goes off. I know the "cheat sleep" won't get counted, but neither will those restless periods.

One question: on my log, I see red bars with spikes -- I'm assuming the shorter bars indicate "restless" and the spikes are "awake" -- is this correct?

[trainer]

I'm curious why you think 'sensitive' is a better option for your sleep log? I would think that logging regular sleep would give you a good indication of when you are asleep vs awake, based on what you said. Yes, the red bars indicate restless vs awake. Starting and stopping the tracker during the night is potentially just going to give you confused data if/when you forget. I personally use the regular setting, lay down in bed, push the button and then forget the device until I get out of bed in the morning. I am able to see what times during the night I am more restless/awake and which times during the night I am sound asleep. If I get up during the night it registers this as awake and I am docked sleep minutes as expected. But I never have to remember to turn things on/off. Remember, the tracker is trying to give you a full picture of your life, so the idea that you are restless, get up, sleep soundly, whatever is all part of the big picture.

[Tex66]

Thanks for the input! I chose "sensitive" tracking as opposed to "normal" because of how long it takes me to fall asleep -- because of the anxiety, I startle myself awake several times as I'm drifting off. I'm trying to improve my sleep habits, so I want to capture even the smallest movement for a week or two, to see if I can improve. Then I might switch to "normal" mode.

[trainer]

Good idea. Using the fitbit as a way to collect data makes the most sense to me. I originally used mine to notice when I was active, when I wasn't. Then I could choose to make changes that fit into my life easily.