Has Fitbit helped you to sleep better?

[MatthewFitbit]

Calling all Fitbit users! Has Fitbit helped you sleep better? If you have a slumber story to tell, let us know!

[AndieL]

Fitbit has definitely helped me sleep better.  I have had difficulty with sleep for quite awhile now.  By using fitbit my doctor and I have been able to come up with a treatment plan that has improved my sleep.  We were able to identify the problem.  I think it's funny that one of the first things my doctor asks me for is my sleep log from the app.  I had hoped to get in on the beta Lab but I was too slow.

[Izzy_Q]

It has made me realize how badly I sleep and the need for improvement.

[gmc505]

Not yet.

1. When the watch light turns on in the middle of the night and wakes you up that's a hindrance. NEEDS a light turn off feature, even LOW LIGHT wakes me up.

2. Last night FEB 23, I notified that I was going to sleep...there was no record this morning was the first time this has happened..

3. Other nights - I felt like I had a great night sleep...but showed I was awake and I know the notice says...YOU may not know you are awake, so if it just measures you tossing or turning even though you are asleep and then the watch light comes on...they need to revisit the watches functions.

Other than that...really like the FITBIT

[gmc505]

gmc505 found his mistake... the light comes on when SCREEN WAKE is set to ON. 

[DublinKaty]

Started really working on #100 days of walking at the start of this week, using fitbit to help me stick to it. Muscles are now so sore that I'm waking up more, not less, and sleeping half an hour less, despite exhaustion. But brain is functioning better and I'm hoping that a week from now I'll be a lot less sore and the sleep benefits will kick in. The extra 5k a day on my average can't be doing any harm

[Reenawitz]

I have also been tracking my sleep in conjunction with wearing my CPAP mask.  It is helpful to recognize when I perceive a good night’s sleep and what the two apps reflect actually happened.  Thanks for the tip on the screen wake.

[Sunshine1alb]

I think that it stresses me out more when I see how little sleep I get,  and that effects how I sleep the next day or night.  I do shift work, but pretty much stay on a awake at night and sleep during the day schedule most of the time.  I also didn't sleep any better when I was on day shift because I had a hard time going to bed before 11pm and had to wake up at 430 am.. Last year I had a sleep study which was normal, slept better than I had in months ironically.

[mfc819]

Not at all.  Very disappointed in the tracking.  Not very accurate determining when I go to bed or fall asleep.  Not to mention saying I was "awake" during the night for over an hour.  Even with the disclaimer "you may not realize/remember you were awake", I don't think it is properly tracking my sleep.  Started using the "Sleep Now and I'm Awake" feature just to get some accuracy into it.  May turn it off completely. 

[gtg947h]

I wouldn't say it's helped me sleep better.  However I've found it to be fairly accurate as best I can tell (bed and wake times right, REM times seem to line up with when I've awakened with dreams, etc). 

What I've found it useful to do is let me know better when I might be able to push myself with a late night or two so I can work on projects, or when it might be a better idea to pack it in early and pop a melatonin.  If my trend for the last few days is over target (which I set at my long-term average of 6 hours), I have some margin I can spend.  If I have a few days well under that... time to catch up.

[SMCeleven]

I would definitely say yes, it has improved my sleep. I have been told I snore recently and I didn't until the last couple of years. After seeing how much restorative sleep I was losing and knowing I was mouth breathing (!), I decided to use some sleep aids to keep my nostrils open and voila! My sleep has improved, I feel more rested and have more energy. Just knowing I was suddenly snoring apparently wasn't enough for me. I needed the sleep section on my Fitbit to show me. I also will be trying new devices for my nasal passages as the ones I originally purchased have all disappeared thanks to my cat.

[Rosk2]

I don't think Fitbit has helped me sleep better and I so far the sleep stage data does not necessarily reflect how I feel on a giving day. I have been using a spreadsheet to keep track of my sleep data (time spent in each stage) and how I feel (mentally and physically) using a scale of 1-10, 1 feeling miserable and 10 feeling great. So far after one month I see no consistent pattern of how feel relative to the sleep stage data. I've had great days with good data numbers and bad days with good data numbers and vice versa. 

[mfc819]

My experience has been the same as I also keep a spreadsheet to track each night's sleep.  My biggest complaint is that most nights the versa doesn't get my "bedtime/fall asleep time" correct.  Sometimes it is off by almost 2 hrs.

[Jmonkey02]

Yes. It is weird that a watch has helped me sleep, but it has. It has helped me understand what time I end up falling asleep, so I can work on it the next week. 

[Erica2busy]

The Fitbit has helped my daughter's doctor to diagnose her circadian rhythem sleep disorder - Sighted Non-24. It is now helping us to manage her sleep schedule.  She has so many therapy and doctor appointments, as well as outdoor activities - but they have to run with her schedule or she will have severe behavioral problems. When I purchased the Fitbit for the sleep tracking, I was finally able to see when she was ready to sleep and when she was ready to wake. I now know that she is typically up during the day around the last 2 weeks of the month and up during the night in the first 2 weeks of the month...so we schedule everything then. It also helps me manage her school schedule (she's cyber schooled). Before the Fitbit, I was in the dark. I depend on the Fitbit to help me manage her life.

[cabeasley]

It has motivated me to incorporate good habits like more exercise, less junk food and etc. And I sleep better as a result, so in that sense, yes (the accountability loop).

[Charlesnester]

Hi Matthew,

I have a lot of problem of slept because from last two month I don't sleep well. So I go to the doctor and he tell me that it is the lack of vitamin. As doctor suggestions I eat all kind of food and fruit but I don't feel better. So kindly tell me something so that I can slept deeply.

[tashan88]

nowhere near as good as the huawei band 3 pro which has a sleep score and gives you guidance on which parts of sleep you should improve on and how

[rockpool]

I actually do feel my Fitbit has helped me sleep better.

I have now used my Charge2 for 1 1/2 years, and during this time I have been able to make out some patterns that are typical for me.

One thing I have noted is that I sleep longer and get more deep sleep if I allow myself to go to bed according to my usual schedule and make sure I wind down and relax a while before bed time.

I have also learned that after a short night with hardly any recorded deep sleep at all (usually because I stayed up late and/or was too wound up to relax), my sleep will usually be better than usual the next few nights, especially if I do some relaxation exercises and/or listen to soothing music before bed time. Over time my amount of sleep and deep sleep tend to show an average that is normal for my age, and this has made me fret a lot less about occasional bad nights, which, I believe in itself has made me sleep better. I still wake up a lot at night, but this no longer makes me worried, sine my Fitbit shows that my sleep is normal for my age (73). Since I started using the Fitbit my recorded deep sleep has actually gone up from 8-9% to 11%.

I also found that it's definitely worth while to persist and try to get some more sleep whenever I wake up too early, even if I feel so awake that no more sleep seems possible. If I manage to get back to seep I actually frequently get another good session of deep sleep, even though it is towards the end of the night. It's as if the awake time has fooled my body into thinking it is the beginning of a new night's sleep. For me the most effective way of going back to sleep on such occasions is to simply turn on the radio (with earphones so as not to disturb my partner) or listen to a book (with snooze function set to 30 minutes). Usually this will make me go back to sleep within a few minutes. 

Having said this, I am fully aware that the Fitbit is not a medical device, and that especially it's deep sleep recording is far from reliable (according to studies published in several threads it typically underestimates the amount of deep sleep). Even so I am prepared to give the Fitbit's deep sleep recording a fair bit of credit as it does indicate periods of restful sleep. 

[JEM-1]

I just upgraded from the original Flex to a Charge 3 and am impressed with the detail I get regarding my sleep patterns. I've only had it a few days but I found this fitbit article very helpful and will work toward getting better sleep. I was impressed that it knew when I went to bed and woke up.  With my Flex I had to tap on it to tell it when I went to bed and woke up. Now I don't need to do that. https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/2163