Fitbit Induced Insomnia

[Olana]

I got my Charge 2 last Tuesday, put it on and left it on to explore what it can do. It's my first Fitbit and first fitness tracker ever. I am fit, exercise regularly and lead a healthy life, so I'd never felt a need for help from a gadget, but finally I broke down, interested primarily in keeping track of my heart rate and sleep patterns.

I didn't sleep well on Tuesday night, but didn't make much of it. I generally sleep well, but we all have an occasional bad night. It didn't get better on Wednesday, and went downhill from there. I had difficulty falling asleep, kept waking up about every hour and then was awake at 3 am and unable to go back to sleep for a t least 1.5 hours. By Friday, I was taking a natural supplement supposed to help sleeping, and over the weekend I tried a sleeping pill. Nothing was helping. There had to be a cause for such a dramatic change, but nothing had changed in my life - no extra stress or illness, no change in diet, exercise or medications. The only thing that entered my life on Tuesday was the Fitbit. I took it off my wrist on Monday afternoon and put it away. I slept well Monday night and again last night. 

I am a rational person, not prone to panic; I don't believe that cell phones are causing brain tumors, etc., but  there is no way around it - it was my Fitbit that caused my insomnia. And I don't believe it was just the discomfort from wearing it on my wrist. Considering the dramatic change in my sleep, it must have been something emitted by the device or the wireless communication going on between the tracker and my phone.

I haven't been able to bring myself to put the Fitbit back on my wrist, even during the day, not knowing what it was that was affecting my sleep. I am curious if anyone else has experienced a similar problem.

[rachelrura]

Since around Halloween of this year I’ve been experiencing the WORST sleep similar to a lot of these stories on here. I have mild stress and anxiety and assumed it could be from that, plus Covid stress. I got in the pattern of checking the time and being so worried about my sleep and pattern. Last night I took my Fitbit off for the night and had the best sleep I’ve had in the last few months and didn’t wake up once until 7am. I’m glad I decided to look this up and glad to know my theory isn’t sounding crazy! 

[Rich_Laue]

@rachelrura this actually makes sense, you are describing a person who has been letting their Fitbit rule their life, instead of using Fitbit as a tool to monitor their life. 

You really need to find a way to take your mind off what you are not able to control and try to relax. 

If you have a newer charge, maybe use the built in relax app. 

[DBFB22]

I certainly didn’t let my Fitbit rule my life. It took me weeks to work out
why I wasn’t sleeping and the Fitbit was the only thing I could link my
insomnia to. As soon as I stopped wearing it I was fine. I think it’s an
issue the manufacturers should address as it clearly affects a number of
people.

[Rich_Laue]

Well then why write the following? 

plus Covid stress. I got in the pattern of checking the time and being so worried about my sleep and pattern.

Why when the tracker was removed and the option to check the sleep was no more, where you able to not stress over what the Fitbit would say? 

I don't want an answer, just think but should be something to consider. This may not be common but I've seen more than one article on, is your Fitbit adding stress to your life? 

[DBFB22]

Maybe because the Fitbit was messing her sleep up already, and once you’re
awake you do tend to check the time then stress more because you know you
should be asleep. You might not be affected by yours, which is good, but
some people clearly are. I’m not a stress head or an anxious person. I’ve
slept well for years and years and it affected me, so I can relate and
sympathise.

[ShalomPeaceout]

Oh my God yes!! The Versa 2 SE is making me go bonkers! I have had the watch for three days and I know the sneaky thing has been tampering with my sleep. I could be dead tired and still wake up at around 2.30 am or 3 am (creepy). Once I remove it, I am able to sleep undisturbed. In fact, I came here to see if it was just me or someone else too. 

[tuppeny]

Good to hear other people have had same problem, otherwise you'd think you
were going mad lol

[SunsetRunner]

Oh wow, the same for me! I think it was really strange. I have worn my Fitbit Versa for multiple years now and my sleep pattern got worse over the months (had so much trouble going to sleep and did not feel rested after 8-10 hours of sleep). I have taken off my Fitbit some days ago completely and I have the best sleep ever. Yesterday I found out that electromagnetic fields (e.g. Bluetooth and Wifi) disrupt melatonin (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23051584/)

Furthermore, the results show the significance of disruption of melatonin due to exposure to weak EMFs, which may possibly lead to long-term health effects in humans.

---

which would explain the sleep problems. I asked and searched how to disable Bluetooth on the Fitbit itself but unfortunately, Fitbit refuses since years to implement an option to disable Bluetooth and Wifi for years now (contrary to other companies like Garmin and Samsung where an airplane mode is just a common feature). I just want to use my loved Fitbit normally but I don't want to sacrifice my health.

See:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Other-Versa-Smartwatches/Airplane-Mode/td-p/2597339/

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Other-Versa-Smartwatches/Airplane-mode-Disable-Bluetooth/m-p/3251905

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?advanced=false&allow_punctuation=false... 

[Marylovesrichar]

I wish Fitbit would reply to this problem. I returned mine. No thanks!

Sent from my iPhone

[JoelGordon]

I have similar experiences. When I don't wear my fitbit Charge 3, I seem to have much higher quality sleep. I feel more rested in the morning when I don't wear it and don't remember waking up or tossing and turning. Wearing it during the day and at night (as instructed, not too tight), I sometimes feel a numb pain in my wrist and up my arm. When I take the device off, the pain goes away in a few minutes.

[Rich_Laue · Accepted solution]

There’s a name for an unhealthy obsession with achieving perfect sleep: orthosomnia. It was coined by researchers from Rush University Medical School and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in a 2017 case study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

This insomnia usually happens because the user gets to hung up on checking their Fitbit data, rather than relaxing.

Here is one users experience . 

As several users pointed out, the first thing they do is check their sleep score. The tracker, instead of being a tool, has now become a mini god and the user is nervous trying to make the tracker happy. This of course will add frustration and cause sleep problems.

[kevinj84]

Thanks for marginalizing their legitimate concerns. Haven’t wore my Fitbit Inspire 2 all week and my sleep has been amazing!

I was ready to go to my PCP until I got fed up with not knowing the causer and decided to leave the Fitbit in the dresser. 

Done with these gadgets, they’re definitely not healthy.

[Rich_Laue]

Sounds like that you are one of them @kevinj84 

As for weak EMF every device in your house that uses any type of electricity puts out an EMF. 

Many people use heating pads or electric blankets, a fan or room heater. They all release EMF. 

Why sleeptrackers could lead to the rise of insomnia – and orthosomnia 

What Is Orthosomnia? All About the New Sleep Disorder You've Never Heard Of

[kimdeslauriers]

Same scenario for me and the reason why I found this post. I’ve been wearing my Fitbit to bed for the last 3 weeks and decided to take it off because my sleep was getting worse every day. I felt an immediate change the night I slept without it.

Like you, I am a rational person and I have a hard time to believe that a watch could have that much influence on my sleep but all I prefer not wearing it at night from now on.

[Lc1972]

 I turned off sleep mode and slept better, Fitbit have to come up with a less invasive technology 

[Rich_Laue]

Interesting @Lc1972 Sleep Mode simply turns off 

• Quick View otherwise movement of the wrist may turn on the screen. 
• Notifications preventing the tracker from vibrating during the night. 

Turning off Sleep Mode does not affect the way the users sleep is recorded. 

Sleep mode simply keeps the tracker from interrupting the users sleep. 

As for the evasive things fitbit does. It shines a few little LEDs into the skin of the wrist.

Standing outside in the sun is more harmful. 

[DiaHo]

I've had fitbits for a few years. Wore them kind of hit or miss.. No obsession about any of the readings. Didn't even really inspire me to reach the goals set for me. I got a new Versa 2 two years ago. It had a lot more features so it was like a new toy. Wore it for a few days no problems.  Then it offered me a free trial of Premium. More features, cool. Got it set up in the evening, wore it to bed-as I had been doing since I got the tracker-my arm (tracker arm) started bothering me, like restless legs bothering. To be fair I do have RLS and am on medication for that. But the extra "juice" sent through the tracker by downloading the Premium service over-road the medication. Took me a couple of nights to figure it out. As soon as I uninstalled Premium my arms were fine. 

Fast forward to early this morning...I'm still kind of hit or miss on wearing the tracker but I had it on last night. About 3:30 I started tossing and turning with Restless Legs, not arms this time (still on meds). Couple of hours of that and I decided to take the tracker off. Within minutes my legs settled down and I went back to sleep. All in my head...maybe. But I'm convinced something with that tracker is upsetting something in this body. I will stop wearing it. Maybe get an old fashion wind up wrist watch. Time to get back to basics.

Thanks for this forum. Nice to know others have some of the same issues.

[Rich_Laue]

When you spend time worrying about your sleep stats you may get to voucher up on getting the perfect sleep. This worry is going to affect your sleep. 

When a person removes their tracker, they know the will not have sleep stats and will relax for a nice sleep. 

If a user wants stats they need to learn to relax with or without the tracker. 

EMF has nothing to do with it. 

Heating pads, electric blankets the lights in the room, your alarm clock, even the wires in the wall give off EMF. 

I've also moved this thread to the Sleep Well Board

[AnnaMccoy]

yet just how do you know you rested better than previous days without the statistics from the fitbit to contrast:-RRB-.

[DBFB22]

Because I actually woke up from a good night’s sleep feeling rested. We’ve
slept (soundly or badly) for millions of years before Fitbits. We don’t
really need something on our arm to tell us whether we’re doing it well -
our bodies do that. They are remarkable machines in themselves.