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.

[DBFB22]

I have been wearing my Fitbit Inspire HR in bed for the past few weeks. My sleep has been terrible and I've been waking up every half an hour throughout the night. I had no idea what was wrong as I've always slept really well in the past, but today I started to wonder if my Fitbit and my iPhone could be messing with my head. I went online to check if anyone else had the same problem and it seems that loads of people do. Very worrying. I'll try sleeping without it this week and hopefully my sleep patterns will improve, but it makes you wonder what effect technology is having on our brains during the day? 

[tuppeny]

I totally agree with you, probably won't find out for years to come, my sleep isn't even registering on my versa 2 until I've been up for at least 6 hours, and doesn't make any sense to me

[Noodles101]

Omg yes! The same thing happened to me! I wore the Fitbit to bed the second night I bought it, the first night was really restless, but then it got progressively worse each night, the last night I decided to not wear it again because I was up every hour.

I don't have trouble sleeping at all, ever. Like I fall asleep within ten mins and don't wake up again until the morning.

I think it is electromagnetic waves and pulses that the Fitbit puts out to read sleep patterns and connect to the app.

I am wearing it still, but I don't wear it to bed.

[DBFB22]

Me too. I've stopped wearing it in bed and after 2 nights I was sleeping
well again. It's a shame though because I quite enjoyed using the sleep
tracker, but it is quite worrying, as it must definitely affect your brain
in a negative way.

[Rich_Laue]

Your tracker used motion and light to detect sleep and heart rate. 

Yes, every item in the house that has electricity flowing through it puts out a magnetic field. Including the wires in the wall. But then so does the earth. 

[Noodles101]

Yeah I understand that every appliance in the house puts out a magnetic pulse, but none of it is attached to you when you areasleep, which is why I have come to that conclusion.

[Marylovesrichar]

My kids bought me a Fitbit for Mother’s Day.  I was kind of interested in the sleep analysis and wore it to bed.  From that night, I have had insomnia every night!   I wore it for several nights and saw that my insomnia was continuing so I quit wearing it to bed but wore it during the day.  Every night I had insomnia.  Finally, I quit wearing the watch altogether and now for about 4 nights, still cannot sleep.  This is like a nightmare.  It’s like I’ve forgotten how to fall asleep.   My question is, can my kids get a refund?

[tuppeny]

Sorry have no idea about that, you could try ringing Fitbit, but doubt you'll get an answer while this virus is still going on as no customer services seem to be working properly at the moment

[LDyln]

I'm light sensitive and when I am sleeping and move my arm, the light from the Fitbit has woken me up.  Random flashes of light could be disrupting your sleep, too.

[SunsetRunner]

I have had an almost word for word identical experience to the original poster, but with a Charge 3.

[Marylovesrichar]

Took almost 3 weeks to start falling asleep without medication after the Fitbit started my insomnia. Sent it back to the mfg for a refund

Sent from my iPhone

[Revelveteen]

There is a setting to turn those lights off.

[sdb70]

 I thought maybe I was crazy for thinking it. I have a versa and was always sleeping badly and waking up around 3 and having problems going back to sleep. thought it was stress etc but recently I misplaced my charger so I wasn't wearing the fitbit. best sleep I had in a while. then when I found the charger, i reset my versa and started wearing it at night again. as soon as I did, I was up around 3am again.

[DBFB22]

I stopped wearing mine in bed ages ago and now have no problems sleeping.
Fitbit should really do some research into this as it could be having a
long term damaging effect on people.

[Rich_Laue]

Is this what this thread is asking about ?

[OnlyGoodThought]

I enjoy my FitBit; however, I have been on sleep aids since I started wearing the product in 2013. I was also in a very bad relationship, worked more than 59 hours a week, and my son went into heart failure (He got a new heart and is now healthy as an ox.). My BFF has been telling me for years that EMFs are bad and that I should wear my FutBit only during the day. She’s into conspiracy theories so I dismissed her concern. However, I have been weaning myself from all my sleep meds because I am deeply concerned about side effects. The last couple of weeks, I went to bed on no meds but wearing my FitBit and life sucked pretty bad. I was only averaging 6 hours.  Last night, out of the clear blue, I looked at my wrist and took it off. I had an AMAZING sleep. I slept more than 8 hours - with no meds, tea or anything. So, I am going to stop wearing it at night all together. As well, I  going to place both my FitBit AND my iPhone at least 2 feet away from me during my sleep.

[tuppeny]

I gave up in the end and bought a Garmin and since then have had no trouble sleeping 

[Marylovesrichar]

I returned my Fitbit. Finally getting my sleep. I had a Fitbit from 2015 or so and couldn’t wear it to track my sleep ever. Wish I had never had the darn watch to begin with. It was a Mother’s Day present from my kids. Worse present ever! LOL

Sent from my iPhone

[Meganbessenger]

I totally agree with this. I sleep so well and I was waking up constantly with this thing. Now I took it off and I sleep right through the night, just have to let my iPhone keep track and then I log it manually in

[dave_in_ni]

WOW, I was just searching for insomnia and came across this thread.  I had never made the link.  I have had sleep issues since 2017 when what happened in 2017? I got a Fitbit Blaze, since then I have had everything from Versa to Charge 3.  My sleep has been horrible, I tend to fall asleep okay for 2-3 hours then I am constantly waking the rest of the night, I am happy when it gets to a resonable time where I can just get up.  I have tried everything from herbal pills, to tea's to over the counter and nothing has worked.  I have never made this link before.  I won't wear my fitbit tonight to see what happens.