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.

[Di71]

Great to read this Olana. I thought I was alone in feeling this ‘wired’ all night, after wearing my Fitbit 3 all day. This is my fourth period of trying to wear it over the last 2 years and each time, I have the same problems.

I get bruising on my wrist almost as soon as I put it on... not tightly, but love tracking my activity and heart rate during the day, so ignore that. But by day 3, even though I take it off each evening, I have the worst night’s sleep, feeling awake and alert for most of the night. This began well on night one, night 2 I thought it was just a bad night and then night 3, same as happens each time I have tried to be a Fitbit woman. 

I have had fragile sleep patterns for some years, so may be susceptible anyway, but this is much more intense than what I suffer at other times.

Sadly, it seems my Fitbit will now go back in it’s box and I’ll go back to sleeping. 

[Genetix71]

for me it is the same reason why I am usually never wor my wedding ring at night or a wrist watch. it simply bothers me and wakes me up at night. Its not the first time I took it off during the night.

[fidbitter]

Thank you for sharing.  Same thing happened to me.  Always sleep well, had difficulty sleeping when using fidbit for 3 nights.  The 4th day, I wore it all day but took it off to go asleep and still had issue with getting t sleep.  It had nothing to do with orthosomnia or checking the fitbit.  I did not look at fidbit during the night since I was not sleeping, I did not need it to tell me I was awake.  

[Audto]

I have this happen to me too. I think it's carpal tunnel, and it comes from the watch being pressed on to our nerves, when we're sleeping. When I stopped wearing the watch for a few days, it went away.

[Audto]

I think they can be healthy, but as with anything - too much of a good thing, often leads to something bad. If you're working on your health, sleep, weight loss, exercise, etc - this is a great tool. And once you reach your goals, then you can live without it, and just use it occasionally to check back in regarding your health. I don't think the baby needs to be thrown out with the bath water!

[heddon75]

I have been dealing with insomnia for 6 months now. I got an Inspire 2 back at the end of January after I was already dealing with it.. I really like it for tracking exercise, etc. Using it to track sleep is another matter nowadays. I don't know just how accurate it really is. Especially when it records nothing overnight and it is fitting correctly. I believe the issue could be more psychological though. Firstly, I am aware that I am wearing it to bed to "record" my sleep. If I'm having a bad night and wake up, it's one of the first things I look at to see how I was sleeping. Secondly, the next day it's one of the first things I look at after I get out of bed to see how well I just slept. If the numbers are good, then it's a bit of a comfort. If they aren't, then it becomes a source of disappointment and a concern. So if I have had a bad night or few nights, it's there to remind me of it. It becomes a little monster and in some ways has made my sleep time worse. Bow down to Fit Bit. 🙂 The bad thing is there isn't much you can do. Sleep is sleep and you can't force it to get better. You have to make changes to yourself. It's just stuck in the back of my mind whether I think about it or not. I recently enrolled in an insomnia course and one of the first things I was told is not to use a sleep diary OR a sleep tracking device. Didn't explain why, but I think the above has something to do with it and is very probably a common thing.

[TheHumanoid]

There seems to be a disparity about Fitbit wanting to keep us healthy but not wanting to help those of us with health concerns. There should be enough storage on the watch to keep the data there for hours 6-8-10 or more without using up the battery anymore than running continuous Wi-Fi. 

We should be able to turn the Wi-Fi OFF when sleeping and ON when awake to download to the phone.

It's’ simple Fitbit. The product wants to keep us healthy but its function does not. Perhaps not a problem with back-sleepers

Many people are side sleepers and the hand, with the Fitbit, is under the head or next to the face, not a good place to keep the Fitbit for back and forth hours. That just happens to be too close resulting in a stronger transmission of EMF 

“Pineal melatonin level disruption in humans due to electromagnetic fields and ICNIRP limits”

From THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH & THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23051584/#:~:text=Melatonin%20is%20a%20natural%20hormone,may%20decre....

“Melatonin is a natural hormone produced by pineal gland activity in the brain that regulates the body's sleep-wake cycle. How man-made EMFs may influence the pineal gland is still unsolved. The pineal gland is likely to sense EMFs as light but, as a consequence, may decrease the melatonin production … 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. Oct 10, 2012”

Come on Fitbit, keep us healthy without making us ill. It should be your protocol.

[DrcspyNz]

OH come on.  Seriously the amount of EMF radiation passing through you all the time is absolutely massive.  If you could see it you'd probably want to live in a Faraday Cage.  Fitbit isn't making anyone ill.  In case you're concerned about WIFI buy a Fitbit Versa 4 Or Sense 2 - they don't have any WIFI function.  It's been removed.  Also you could turn your phone off so the device isn't trying to communicate with LE Bluetooth, (Yes that -  Low Energy Bluetooth).  This is how it exchanges information with the device.  As for EMF's maybe turn off your house WIFI router if you're worried.  Unplug any and all electronic devices, build a Faraday Cage in the walls of your house. And wear a SpaceSuit when you're outdoors.........Seriously we're so hugely showered by EMF all the time theres no way to avoid it.  I'd be thinking any sleeping issue with Fitbit might be more aligned with stress or similar in consideration of the Fitbit results each morning.  Personally I look at my stats every morning but don't over think them, don't worry about them in general unless I see some trend developing.