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!

[SunsetRunner]

It's under "Settings" > "View Device Settings" > "Sleep Tracking"

I know it's on the web version. Not sure if it's on Windows 10. It's not on Android. Easiest place seems to be on the web, then sync your device.

I am presuming it is a setting available to all trackers which can monitor sleep in some way.

[OldBob3301]

Crazy & inaccurate plus poor programming is a more appropriate title.  In the past few days, I've been getting very strange sleep time results  For example: this morning the fitbit android app and the sleep tile in the web app both said that i got 7:02 hrs of sleep last night, and awake for 81 minutes.  Now, I would have noticed that I was awake for 81 min.  In fact, I had a very nice nights sleep and awoke feeling rested.  Clicking on the sleep tile in the web app for more info showed me that I had 7:41 hrs of sleep ... 13 minutes awake and 29 minutes restless, which seems more in keeping with my own sense of sleep.  Also the red bars coincided with my getting up to use the bathroom.  There has been a recent change in how you are guessing at sleep and if is both wrong and inconsistent among your software modules.  FIX IT.

[NicCog]

I'm getting  the same with the fitbit blaze since the update to sleep cycles. 90 mins awake apparently which just doesn't seem right.

[StarrC]

I'm having the inaccurate sleep recording that you describe but my charge HR has been on normal the whole time. I'm on my second charge HR and had the same problem with the last one. What I haven't done is ALSO checked/changed my settings online. Would this make a difference?

[801]

change it!

[StarrC]

Thanks for responding! But when I went on line to the settings, it too was already on normal. I also notice that on a rare occasion it will actually record the whole night. I just think even "normal" is way too sensitive.

[vjw_65]

All I can say is my method and finally I am getting a consistently good sleep a four hour followed by a three hour or seven hours total.
After noon I drink only water or Nighty-nite tea from Amazon I do not watch any news or disturbing t.v. in bed, bed is for sleeping.black out curtains stop the outside noises is snow plow or thump De thump car stereos.Place my worries away from my hands shut down my brain like a computer closing all running possesSed my internal clock to four hours or three
Sleep well !
Vjw class of 1965.

[vjw_65]

Mine is reachable via hovering mouse over bottom of sleep square a bar appears and see the wee gear that is the settings button
or my other fitbit I go far right top of dashboard and see the wee gear or settings <click there>
Don't forget to save changes ! 

[vjw_65]

I found it completely reliable every morning I guess how much sleep I logged by how I feel and when I look I either go back to bed or start my day

[vjw_65]

OMG your bar code reads as very restless or expensive <wink>

[StarrC]

Thanks VJW, but I don't have any problem SLEEPING...I have a problem with the Fitbit only recording certain parts of my sleep. Sometimes there are big spaces of time when I was clearly NOT awake that it says I was. Other times it's several smaller spaces (not including the once or twice some nights I might actually make a bathroom run--those usually show I go right back to sleep.) I don't move around a lot because I have a Tempurpedic mattress that gets me very comfortable. My only explanation is that my pulse must change during that time---no idea why. 

[OldBob3301]

I've commented on this before.  I'm quite aware that I am awake during the night.  At my age I need to get up for a trip to the bathroom.  I normally fall right back to sleep.  I have had nights when I couldn't get back to sleep with my mind racing, but on normal nights (which are the vast majority) I get a good nights sleep.  Last night my Fitbit charge 2 claimed that I was awake for 74 minutes and got 6 hrs 55 minutes of sleep.  This is so absurd that I no longer have any confidence in Fitbit's estimates.  This isn't science, it's pseudo-science or very poor programming and even worse customer relations.  The next time I purchase a fitness monitor it will not be a Fitbit.  No wonder the stock sucks.

[petsitter1]

My complaint is with the new bar graph format.  While it is easy to see and I like the 30 day history, I can no longer know what time I am awake or restless. Your new format gives only the sleep and wake times.  I used to be able to scroll over the bars and get the actual time.  As I often get up during the night to go to the bathroom, I would like to know if that is the time that it is registering or if it's another time that I'm just awake but not up and about.  If you can't reinstate the scroll over function, maybe you could delineate the hours at the bottom of the graph to give us some idea of the time. Also, this doesn't give the amount of time we were awake or restless, just a small or large bar.  Hope you can make it work again.

[ChgoUser]

But what if you have the opposite problem? What if the Fitbit is accurately recording start and stop times, but the chart is claiming you've slept 4 or 5 hours LONGER than that? Not just once, but every day for the past two weeks?

[801]

Then it's gotta be broken! Unless you are not moving at all.

[Konababe]

Last night, I had the best night's sleep in over a week. I awakened a little after 3am and went to the bathroom but quickly fell asleep when I came back. I felt very rested this morning, so I eagerly looked forward to what the results showed. To my amazement, I only slept 2-1/2 hours. It recorded the sleep after I returned from the bathroom but the sleep before that was not recorded. The time I got up was recorded accurately this time but there have been at least two times last week that it recorded me as getting up over a half hour later than what I did. I got the Alta HR to really monitor the heart rate but thought the sleep monitoring might be useful but not if it does not record actual sleep.

[StarrC]

I've had two Charge HRs and both have the same problem with recording sleep. I hate to say it, but I'm exploring other activity devices; Fitbit now has some worthy competitors.

[NKPI]

It seems that earlier this year FitBit released an software update. Besides it now showing restless and awake it also shows REM, light- and deep sleep. However, normally I was in bed for 8h15m I would have slept 8h0m. Last night, so under the new software update, I was in bed for 9h15m and slept 6h50m. I've spend 1h30m awake (by far not realistic anymore).

It has become impossible to reach 8 hours of sleep. I have made a full post about this (link below) but it never appeared on the page or can be found via search (like anyone would do that). So unfortunately I never received any response.

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Sleep-Better/Sleep-tracker-update-significant-decrease-in-sleep/m-p/...

Does anyone know how to fix this?

[Konababe]

NKPI, I tried to access your info via the link you provided and got the message that it was not available. Perhaps you can repost the details here.

I personally have switched sleep settings, kept the Alta HR charged, and have reset it but still get odd results. This week has especially been odd. I re ally got the Alta HR for heart rate tracking which it has been doing very well until last night. Last night, I got the best sleep of the week and felt very rested when I got up but the sleep charts indicate otherwise...and there is a big gap in time that nothing is recorded. I checked the heart rate and saw that the chart indicated a period of time that it was not picking up a heart rate.

May 19 Missing InfoMay 19 info compared to May 18

HR May 19 Showing Gap

[NKPI]

Of course I can repost it. I figured something went wrong with that post; as it never appeared as a new topic. I have the HR Charge.

--

Hi all,

So I noticed that somewhere last week my sleep tracker got a software update or something. It first was quite simplistic: saying asleep, restless or awake. If I'd be in bed for 8 hours I'd be awake 3 times and be restless 7 times and sleep 7h50m.

Now the tracker changed and shows awake, light sleep, deep sleep and REM. That is fine. Except that when I am in bed now for 8 hours it tells me I'm awake for 1h15m, resulting in sleep of only 6h45m.

It must be this software causing this, because I didn't change my house, my bed, my job or ignited and apocalypse which would structurally cause these changes. Does anyone know which one is now correct or how to fix this? My goal is 8 hours sleep, but considering how it currently registers my sleeping I'd have to spend 9u30m in bed; while this used to be 8u15m. The latter seems far more realistic.

I have some screenshots to vivid the issue described above.

Example of night sleep under old software/update/layout:

http://i66.tinypic.com/ion3wk.jpg

Example of night sleep under new software/update/layout:

http://i64.tinypic.com/15d9v1w.jpg

edit: it seems I'm terrible with entering HTML codes for pictures. I hope the links work: otherwise copy paste the text into the address bar.