Many "wakeful" periods - bad sleep or is "sensitive setting" wrong for me?

[andreabrie]

I never thought I got bad sleep until I monitored my sleep with fitbit!  I consistently get sleep efficiencies in the 50-60% range and have over two hours and between 10 and 15 wakeful periods a night.  On the other hand, when I use the "normal" setting, fitbit says I slept all night without waking up and I know that's not true either.  Suggestions?  Do I need to talk to my doctor about this?

[frzrchl]

I have never been very good at sleeping. I need practice, lol. 

I chose the sensitive setting for my Fitbit One as I wanted details and I wanted to find out why I feel exhausted every morning when I wake up.

I've talked with my doctor and had a sleep study done to check for apnea to no avail. I honestly don't know how they would have even known anything since the machine they hooked me up to made sleeping nearly impossible >_>

So far I feel the data has been fairly accurate. I love that I can see what time I actually went to bed in the morning when I check my dashboard. That's actually been very helpful information. I thought I had gone to bed nearly two hours before I actually put it into sleep mode, so evidently I was a tad off. 😛 

[Jaschultz]

I was diagnosed with periodic limb movement disorder. After a lifetime of being tired all the time... Feeling horrible in the mornings and falling asleep at the drop of a hat, FINALLY!!!! I'm not lazy, crazy, or depressed. See a sleep dr. Last night I slept for 6 hours... 2hrs and 17 mins asleep and 240 minutes (4 hours) restless on a sensitive setting. This is normal for me with requip at the highest dose they can give me. I'm 5'6" 120#. I bought my Fitbit because I gained 10lbs after being diagnosed... Who knew I was burning that many calories with Parkinsonian type movements all night long. I would wake up drenched in sweat and had to change my sheets daily. I'll take the 10lbs I've gained. I can finally get out of bed consistently without oversleeping multiple alarms at least 3 days a week! My PLMD is extreme... I moved 596 times in my 8 hr sleep study and never got into rem sleep. Apparently treatment for plmd starts at 40 movements... If you are suffering excessive daytime sleepiness and your Fitbit shows more restlessness than sleep, see a dr. My life is exponentially improved because I'm finally getting rest. The sleep function in my Fitbit has been accurate daily. I'm really glad I bought my surge instead of the apple watch. Sleep is a relatively new science. Plmd didn't exist until the 90's. I truly believe we will see more diagnosis of adhd, depression, even some bi-polar disorders related to and relieved by treating underlying sleep disorders.

[AnneMargar]

What did the doctor do to help you sleep?  How many wake cycles do you have now - after seeing the doctor?

[PerfectBlue]

What concluson did you come to in the end?

When I use the standard setting it says that I get a full night sleep with an efficienty in the 90s. When I set it to sensitive it says that I get about 3 hours sleep, with an efficientcy in the 40s.

The can't both be rigth.

[aothomasjr]

I have a charge HR and have found the sleep settings to sensative for Me for best results I let the tracker track  My sleep and it usually shows 2 to 3 hours of sleep with 10 to 12 awake periods. Then I go to the dashboard and erase the data from the previous night and manually enter the sleep period from the night before 10:30PM to 7:30Am for Me and it will now 8 to 81/2 hous sleep with usually the same number of awake periods.The tracker tracked sleep never agrees with the adjusted dashboard.  I also have a pulse ox meter with memory I wear to sleep taped to My finger at night and it shows the fitbit to be accurate. Hope this Helps

[Beezy1978]

I disagree.
My sleep records are almost perfect.
Love my FitBit for sleep tracking! ♡ 😉

[gigicandy13]

I don't sleep well either, but I do better now that I lift along with my running.  Talk soon  Gigicandy

[Jaschultz]

Weight bearing exercise seems to help me also.

Sent from my iPhone

[Ronniem]

When I first started using my Charge to record my sleep patterns I put the setting on Sensitive bad move.  I have sleep apnea and use a CPAP machine once I'm ready to settle down I put on the mask and turn it on.  In the mornings I check for length of time the machine is on and the apnea number.  I wanted to know the actual amount of time I sleep.  I began to wear my Charge all day and all night and was shocked the amount of time I was waking and how restless I am, this was beginning to upset me.  After doing some research I realised that I could switch from sensitive to normal setting.  Now I still see how restless I am and how often I appear to be waking up but not to the degree that I'm worried about my sleeping patterns and making them worse by worrying about them. I still am only sleeping on average about 6 hrs even though I'm in bed for approximately 8 hrs.  It does take me quite a while from when I get into bed to when I settle to sleep.  I even take a sleeping pill every night and two on days I want to sleep in, then I can sleep about 8 to 9 hrs.  All that being said I'm still restless and appear to wake ofteh other than the one trip I often make to the bathroom in the night I'm unaware of those other times.  I love the Charger and glad I purchased one.  What can I do differently if anything?

[Sleepybob]

Keep in mind that many sleeping pills are associated with serious side
effects and, with long term use, dementia. Also,
caffeine and other substances may exert a sleep disruptive effect for up to
13 hours. Effective use of melatonin might help
by combining different timed doses and short sublingual doses (short as one
mg) over the course of you sleep time. Once
your sleep approaches 5 hr./night, your risks of damage to your health
increases. Many unanswered Qs to your sleep
report. Coffee disturbs the homeostatic sleep drive. Check on adenosine.

Sleepy Bob

[DramaQueenDiva]

Try sleeping with a note pad on your nightstand. Studies have shown that often when we can't sleep, it's because we're thinking of something we need to do. If you think of something, write it down. That way it's out of your mind. Weird I know but it works. If that doesn't work, talk to your doctor.

[AnneMargar]

I just wanted to add a note to say that I am feeling much better these past few days.  I switched my Fitbit sleep setting to normal - which I think gives a better/ more accurate picture of my sleep.  I have really been trying to hit the 8 hours of sleep each night goal.  The big change I made, is that I have been sleeping in the guest bedroom so that I am not awakened at night by my partner's snoring or tossing and turning.  I think it has been a huge success for me.  I have also cut out alcohol entirely and only drink coffee first thing in the morning - before 8am.  I now only wake one time in the night to use the bathroom and then I am able to fall right back to sleep.  Oh, I forgot to add - I am doing 30 minutes of exercise each morning and I practice a 15 min guided meditation 3 times/week (should really do more).  So far so good, lots of changes, but I am feeling much better.  More energy, increased ability to focus, and better mood!!  

[SantaCruzMts]

I think everyone has struggled with the sleep settings.  Best advice I saw from the posts was to take an average of the sensitive and normal settings, and that is probably the amount of sleep you're getting at night.  The sensitive setting can show you how much you're flopping around at night, but the normal setting can show you that you weren't really awake when you did it.  If the average isn't something you can live with, then as another poster suggested, contact your doctor to discuss options for sleep.

[IrishNan]

Glad you are doing better. i think it is better not to use sensitive
setting as it is just discouraging. Whichever setting you use, that is a
baseline and then you can try different strategies to see what works for
you.

[Joanne1]

I was diagnoses with Narcolepsy and severe insomnia 3 years ago.  I have to say that when I received my first FitBit One, I tracked my sleep patterns, printed it out and took it to my Neuro for comparison to the multiple sleep studies I had done.  I set my tracker on "sensitive".  For me personally, having an official diagnosis and multiple sleep studies, my sleep tracker was not that far off.

[Janlynn]

Yes you should.  I have restless legs syndrome and take a 10 mg muscle relaxer before going to bed to help me sleep.  I had a sleep study done many years ago because I would wake up not feeling rested.

[Sleepybob]

RLS is shown b y a regular periodic pattern of leg movements, jerks, etc.,
perhaps accompanied by muscle cramps. Drugs assigned by sleep specialists
for this condition usually work fairly well. On the other hand, there is a
somewhat similar pattern called benign fascicular syndrome which displays
as visible muscle twitches, with the legs at rest. BFS is largely
untreatable but the accompanying cramps can be managed quite rapidly with a
full size aspirin. 10 years is a long time with RLS. The data shown by
fitbit should show a pattern consonant with RLS, if you have it.

Sleepy Bob

[gigicandy13]

Hi so what kind of medicine do they give for RLS. I believe I have it. Don't know what to do. Gigi 🙂

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[Sleepybob]

In the June issue of Neurology, one RLS subject was treated successfully
with Mirapex followed later with methadone. Often
RLS is treated with dopamine agonists. Also, avoid coffee and alcohol.
Antidepressants and antihistamines may worsen RLS symptoms
Sleepy Bob

[Pickler]

I was told by a doctor that if people would drink a full glass of water before they go to bed it would prevent many from having a stroke.