Inaccurate Sleep Log? Change your settings!

[CallieM]

Hi sleepy Community members!

Does your sleep log look something like this?

If you think your log is inaccurate when it shows this much restlessness, you're not alone! A lot of Fitbit users have sleep logs like this, and many times it's due to the fact that Sleep settings are on "Sensitive" mode instead of "Normal" mode. A little about these two modes:

• The normal setting counts significant movements as being awake (such as rolling over) and is appropriate for most users.
• The sensitive setting will cause your tracker to record nearly all movements as time spent awake. This setting may be helpful for users with sleep disorders, or those who wear their tracker somewhere other than the wrist while asleep.

We strongly suggest that most users use the Normal setting. To change your settings to Normal, follow these steps, or visit our help article!

• To change your setting in the Fitbit iOS app, go to Account > Advanced Settings > Sleep Sensitivity.

• To change your setting in the fitbit.com dashboard, go to Settings > Devices > scroll down to Sleep Tracking.

I hope this helps - let me know if you have any trouble changing this setting or if you have seen a difference in the accuracy of your sleep log after switching!

[Johnthehat]

After months of inaccurate readings, I believe I have the answer:

If, after going to bed, you get up within three hours (going for a pee etc.) your sleep up to the time you got up, will not be logged. If you get up again, within three hours from your return to bed, that sleep will not be logged, you have now 'lost' 6 hours of sleep.

I have now given up on my Fitbit recording my sleep. It is inaccurate.

Hope this helps everyone.

[LKarchner]

I've wondered about what the relevancy of the 3-hours before the Fitbit begins actually recording the sleep stages has to do with anything. Some people just naturally nap in brief spells rather than for longer periods and like you, I'm up at least twice each night to pee or get a sip of water and not only is my sleep interrupted, so is the data. I wish Fitbit would consider this not just for the sleep app but also for the activity. Many of us have desk jobs and the only activity we get during the day are brief walks on breaks for 10 minutes or less. While the steps are tracked, the activity is often not counted as exercise at all. I've had my Fitbit since mid-December and I hope that the app developers will recognize and make changes eventually that will reflect real life events or add options that a user can select to more truly reflect their personalized lifestyles/workstyles. We aren't all 20-something, physically fit runners that carve out 2-hour workouts from our busy but sedentary lives each day.

[Tuner]

This weird,
My Fitbit does not record well in my own bed. Now I am in a Time Share condo. the bed is great and my fitbit records good, even if I get up to pee.

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[BillFinkelstein]

Of Course I did, before I even posted the first time. I'm an Engineer. I
can follow instructions and read the manual (as sparse as it is).

[801]

Do you think your Fitbit does not work properly? You are not alone.I left out most of the form. You get the idea.

[veloron2008]

After using a Fitbit Alta HR the past few nights, I've determined the Sleep Analysis to be wildly inaccurate.

Most trackers do not go beyond classifying Awake, Light and Restful sleep. To claim to be able to detect actual Deep vs REM sleep sounds like marketing. My own experience agrees, seeing how far Fitbit far underestimates the restful sleep phases and overestimates the time awake.

I now have 4 devices capable of tracking sleep: Garmin 920XT, Mi Band2, Misfit Ray and the Fitbit Alta HR. In a couple of tests I've run, the first 3 are usually within 10-15% of each other and the Fitbit is way off. 

As an athlete, I do like the resting heart rate tracking feature of the Alta HR. 

[bmorris123]

you bought the wrong device.versa is very inaccurate, at least mine is.

[Johnthehat]

**ahem** right!

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[KathySimpson]

I get in the bed at 10 p.m. and the fitbit says that I don't fall asleep until 12:30.  Meanwhile, my husband gets into the bed at 11:00 p.m. and I don't even know it.  He says I'm asleep and I'm pretty sure I am.  Not sure this unit is working!

[801]

It's a toy at best. I test the heart rate against machines in the gym. either every machine in the gym is wrong or it is just not consistent. As for sleep forget it. I use a CPAP machine for my apnea and the Fitbit is always WAY off compared to that, which I trust.

[Johnthehat]

An expensive toy at that!

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[KCollin]

I'm a very poor sleeper and tracking how long I was sleeping was the main reason I bought the Charge 3. I've found the sleep tracker to be very inaccurate, it's significantly overestimating the time I'm asleep. I've tried following the steps you gave to check if it's perhaps on normal and to change it to sensitive, but there's no sleep sensitivity on the app under Advanced Settings. I'd be grateful for some advice.

[no2t]

I think that Fitbit is using the Heart rate monitor to modify the sleep
settings. During the early sleep it seems to track other devices. Later in
the night, when your heart rate slows down, the readings diverge from other
devices. Why don't you try an app on your smartphone, such as "Sleep as
android". Now you can compare the results.See if you agree with mine.

[Giggles0303]

My problem is that I roll around a lot in my sleep. Fitbit likes to log that as being awake. So I end up having about a hundred little pink dots of ‘awake’ in my sleep chart. How well I slept shouldn’t be lumped in with how long I slept. They’re not the same thing and if I work extra hard to get 8 hours sleep I don’t want an hour and a half being taken off just because Fitbit thinks I wake up 100 times a night for 2 seconds.

[Pibzoria]

I always get a broken sleep chart, so maybe something like 2 hours, then 90mins apparently awake, and then another 4.5 hours asleep.

If I then delete one of them, and edit the remaining sleep chart to match the start/end of both charts I get a complete chart. That 90 mins of awake still has recorded areas of sleep types.

It's kind of like it isn't building up the chart right and missing out a chunk of the middle 😞

[Johnthehat]

Give up! Fitbit doesn't record sleep properly

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[Pibzoria]

Isn't that what I just said? So why give up so early?

[801]

HI, I know way too much about this as I have had at least 6 lab sleep studies over the years. The micro wake ups are a sign that your sleep IS poor and you need to investigate a with your doctor. You ARE NOT getting 8 hrs if you are waking up several times even for a few seconds. That stops yoiu from reaching restorative sleep state. Having said that, do you have a partener or pet in bed with you? That can throw the reading off in a big way. Try it completely alone for a couple nights to see if it changes. Take your fitbit off sensitive for sleep if it is on that now.

[801]

PS my sleep doctor says the fitbit is not very accurate about ANYTHING. Not sure if she is biased because it conflicts with what they might tell you.

[801]

your fitbit is probably sensing him getting in to bed and counting that as = you moving and not asleep. Pets and partners throw the data off. Sleep alone a few times and see what happens.