Broken Sleep Record

[macurth]

I've only been using Fitbit for a short time, but this morning when I looked at my sleep record I can't figure out why it looks this way.

I went to bed around 11pm.

Woke up at 5:30am and had to come down stair for medicine

Went right back to bed, then got up at 7:35am to go to the bathroom

Finally got up after 11am, never touched my phone and say I was awake or going to sleep other than the first time I went to bed or got up the next day.

The Fitbit broken this timing into 3 groups and on the 2nd and 3rd the pink is not solid but striped.

Out of almost 1 week I have many nights where I have solid pink, but there was 1 night that all the pink was a striped pink.

I have essential tremor and was wondering if this could possibly be the cause of the striped pink sections

I was wondering if others have had this same type of sleep records or have any idea why it would appear this way

[tennislaw]

I alos had that message a couple of time but most of the time it seems to represents a good picture of the sleep pattern.

[Roessie]

I have been using my fitbit for about two weeks.  I didn't buy it for myself but when the recipient didn't want it, I decided to keep it to see if I could start understanding the severe insomnia I've developed.

My sleep data over two weeks is similar to yours: I have two or three periods of sleep with lots of "restless" stripes and blocks, and one or two "awake" stripes.  Between the periods of sleep, there are periods of an hour and half to over three or even 5 hours when I'm supposedly not asleep at all.  Sometimes that's accurate--during that 5 hour period recently, I really was awake all night.  Other times, I'm puzzled that the Fitbit doesn't think I was asleep, because (a) I don't remember a long period of wakefulness and (b) the heart rate monitor shows my heart rate dropped to 62-64 BPM with some spiking above or below, which is same rate I have during the non-restless sleep periods.

Last night, after resetting the watch to "normal" sleep sensitivity, my dashboard shows two blocks of sleep with NO "restless" stripes, except at the very beginning and very end.  (I swear--just looking at those blocks of solid blue is relaxing!)  However, between the two blocks of sleep, I was supposedly awake.  And I wasn't--I was asleep.  I woke up at 3:25 a.m., went to the bathroom and did a couple of yoga stretches at 3:25 am, then fell asleep--as I remember it--right away.  The heart rate monitor says my heartrate fell below 70 and then into the low sixties, with a few spikes to 70 or so, from 3:30 a.m. until 9:20 a.m.  Yet the sleep report says I was awake from 3:25 until 6:11 a.m., and then asleep again from 6:11 to 8:18.  Yet 9:00 a.m., my heart rate was 58 bpm.  15 minutes later I woke and looked at the clock.

Bottom line:  I trust the heart rate monitor, but I'm not sure what the sleep report means.  If I'm using the sensitive setting, it appears I am restless a great deal.  Does that mean I'm getting very little deep sleep?  Do I ever get REM sleep?  I can't dreaming, ever.

I'm going to get sleep study soon at an insomnia clinic.  Before I go, I'm going to take a look at how to download reports so that the Doc can perhaps shed some light on what they mean, if anything, and I'll report on that here.

I'm glad to see this discussion because Fitbit doesn't provide any help understanding the sleep data, as far as I can tell.

[macurth]

Thanks Roessie

I was thinking of asking for a sleep study because I have had terrible bouts with insominia for years, but I don't want to waste the time and money if I really don't have a problem. I've tried every over the counter treatment and 4-6 Rx with little luck.

My mom did suggest one other thing. She asked if I could be sleepwalking.

I did it a lot as a child and this morning when I woke up I had 412 steps already.

There is no way walking down the stairs one time and going to the bathroom once accounted for that many steps, so I wonder....

[Colinm39]

@macurth Many of us get the broken sleep records with the Charge HR, I get 3 to 4 a night and only 1-2 minutes gap.

Buit "Essential Tremor" would cause your activity in the Charge HR sleep recxords because all Fitbits with sleep detection are a movement detector. With your tremor type presumably in the hands, would cause that.

I have successfuly used the wrist type Fitbits on the ankle with better results but I was checking pulse on the extremities of the body, not sleep.

---

@macurth wrote:

I've only been using Fitbit for a short time, but this morning when I looked at my sleep record I can't figure out why it looks this way.

I went to bed around 11pm.

Woke up at 5:30am and had to come down stair for medicine

Went right back to bed, then got up at 7:35am to go to the bathroom

Finally got up after 11am, never touched my phone and say I was awake or going to sleep other than the first time I went to bed or got up the next day.

The Fitbit broken this timing into 3 groups and on the 2nd and 3rd the pink is not solid but striped.

Out of almost 1 week I have many nights where I have solid pink, but there was 1 night that all the pink was a striped pink.

I have essential tremor and was wondering if this could possibly be the cause of the striped pink sections

I was wondering if others have had this same type of sleep records or have any idea why it would appear this way

---

[Colinm39]

---

@macurth wrote:

Thanks Roessie

I was thinking of asking for a sleep study because I have had terrible bouts with insominia for years, but I don't want to waste the time and money if I really don't have a problem. I've tried every over the counter treatment and 4-6 Rx with little luck.

My mom did suggest one other thing. She asked if I could be sleepwalking.

I did it a lot as a child and this morning when I woke up I had 412 steps already.

There is no way walking down the stairs one time and going to the bathroom once accounted for that many steps, so I wonder....

---

@macurth For my 9 hours "sleep" last night I had 368 steps, and as I posted earlier it is a movement detector.

I have posted elsewhere I get steps loading the dishwasher and I don't worry about those because I get no steps pushing a shopping trolley with two hands. If I push a trolley with a wobbly wheel I get all of the steps, or over cobble stones...

[macurth]

Thank you!

[jrose1982]

Regarding the broken graphs:  You don’t say which Fitbit you have, but some of them (I’m guessing yours is one) can automatically detect when you are sleeping without you manually putting it into sleep mode.  These same devices can also tell when you get up.  So that’s probably why you have 3 graphs instead of one.  When you got up at 5:30 and 7:35, the device detected movement that is beyond even wakeful in-bed movement and reported that you are up and about.  Then when you returned to bed it detected that you were resting again and restarting the tracking.

Considering that and your description of the night, your graph looks reasonably accurate.  Note that “Time to fall asleep” is “0 min”, and yet your graph shows that you were awake for a while after you went to bed.  I find I get this result when I don’t put my Fitbit into sleep mode; so it makes me think yours was not in sleep mode, either.  Without putting it in sleep mode, it doesn’t know I’m in bed until it detects a lack of movement that is consistent with sleep or restless sleep.  That’s why it doesn’t detect the 30-60 minutes it actually takes me to fall asleep.

As for the graph stripes:  I think this is actually a bug.  Every time that I’ve had more than one chart for one day, there is only one chart that looks solid.  I don’t think it means anything.

You don’t mention if your Fitbit is on sensitive or normal setting.  Your sleep efficiency looks like mine after I switched to sensitive.  Do you feel rested when you wake up?  If it’s on normal now then if you set it to sensitive it might be all pink because of your tremor.  If it’s on sensitive now, and your tremor is causing all that red without waking you up, then changing it to normal might be more accurate.

For comparison, here's one of my sleep graphs with two charts.  The first was my normal sleep for the night.  The second was after I realized I had the day off and rolled over to try to get back to sleep.  You can see that it reports 0 minutes to fall asleep, but the graph shows that it took me about 35 minutes to get back to sleep.

[tennislaw]

When I first get ,up and log my sleep, I noticed that I have a 200-300
steps. I concluded that the it is probably the tossing and/or blood flow
results in inaccurate reading. The fitbits are not supposed to be 100%
accurate anyway. Just take a look at the newest Consumer Report Feb 16
issue. Fitbit Surge is rated 1 and HR rated 3 but the articles recognize
that while useful that they are appear to log more steps than you actually
take.(see pages 21 and 33). I will just use it as a trend type device, but
still be open to learning more about what and how the date is useful to me.
Have a good evening and don't fight the

[tennislaw]

I have a charge hr and the sleep record on the 13th is correct, I did wake
up for about 45 minutes and back to sleep with getting up. On Sunday I got
out of bed after 6 but did not go back to bed but just watched TV sitting
relatively still. Generally it does seem to give errors is wake up times
(broken lines) but often it is correct. Time to sleep is alos very good
since most of the time I fall asleep quick. However, when I do wake up in
the middle of the night, I often do not tell the tracker I am going back to
sleep so it could be my fault. I still think the Consumer Reports (CR), Feb
2016 probably makes a good point for some people but the fitbit does not
over estimate my sleep, and definitely not by 20%. However, the CR does
like the heart rate and steps accuracy. All it all, the only complaint I
have is sometimes getting sync in the morning. By the way I see that Blue
Cross is taking some interest in FITBIT readings and, at least in some
plans you can sync your Fitbit readings to the Blue Cross health tools to
check your individual health goals. Good idea, the health insurance plans
should have been doing this for some time.

[phyllis46]

@Roessie  I'm new here, too, but I remember reading that fitbit uses your body mass index in an algorithim to calculate steps while you sleep.  Hope this is helpful.  Wish I could point you to what I read...