Sleep depth tracking

[Pingu]

I'm on day 2 of fitbit ownership (ChargeHR) and i'm very impressed.  I earn points on my health insurance for reaching step goals each day and last night i found myself going out for a little walk just to top up to hit my goal for the day.  It's already changing my behaviour!

The only thing i'm not that impressed with is the sleep tracking.  I sometimes use an app called Sleep Cycle and it shows periods of deep sleep and light sleep, and it can also wake you up during the light sleep periods to make the transition to daytime easier.  I'm surprised that Fitbit can't recognise deep/light sleep based on the accelerometer data like my iPhone can.  Does anyone know if this is possible and if fitbit might consider developing this feature?

[tbruno123]

How do you set up sleep as an activity?Thanks!

[wildweeder]

1. Go to LOG tab and highlight ACTIVITIES 2. scroll to bottom of page, below Activity History 3. on the left is Log Activities, on the right is just the word Activities; under Activities will be a list of whatever activities you’ve previously included (or, in my case, nothing). At the bottom of the list of activities will be Create custom activity. 4. Click on Create custom activity - a box will appear on screen, type SLEEP in activity cell, then click ADD ACTIVITY. Hopefully my screen shot shows up below - the screen that comes up will have what you named it, a current date (which I changed to previous date & put in approx time I lay down to try to sleep, and whatever time I got up. It takes a few minutes to actually load the results, and I usually put my fitbit sleep record in a separate tab so I can toggle between activity log and sleep log to compare what heart rate was in relation to what sleep/restless showed in the sleep log. Hope that helps - Oh and you can go back with activity record and add an older date if you want.

[tbruno123]

Thanks.  I will check this out.

[joefat2fit]

Has anyone noticed the difference between efficiency of sleep at night and napping?   I have had interrupted sleep patterns for the last 40 years, so napping is a big help to me.   Retirement and napping go hand in hand for me!    My naps are very solid and I wake up refreshed!  

What is your experience napping and with tracking?

[Jennrod12]

Charge HR actually does not use the HR to determine your sleep.  At least, when I asked their customer support how it tracks sleep, they did not mention that it uses the HR, and when I sent back an email asking specifically if it uses the HR, they didn't reply.

I think Sleep Cycle is better than the Charge HR because on the non-sensitive setting my Charge always says I slept 96-98%, while on sensitive it usually says 55-65%.  Sleep Cycle usually ranges between 75% - 85%, and when it's outside of that range one way or another, I really feel the difference.

Jenn

[Jeet]

How do track my sleep in Fitbit charge HR should I have to enter sleep log?

[OrganicBeauty]

The efficiency only counts how well you stayed asleep, not how long it took you to fall asleep.

[SouthernDad]

In addition to my Fitbit Flex, I use MotionX 24/7 on my iPhone with it on the bed.  One good thing about MotionX is that it records a few minutes during the night.  Nothing like hearing proof that I do really snore throughout the night.

I have found that it and my Fitbit Flex data seems to line up pretty well.  Which gives me confidence that the data recorded by both is pretty accurate.  The little arrows are the minute of recorded snores.  I have also used Sleep++ on my Apple Watch but I need to charge my watch each night so that is never a good idea.

[cahb]

G2EWS, I would like to know more about REM sleep. You mention that it takes 90 minutes to get there. Can you tell me where you have researched this information? I very seldom have more than an hour of uninterrupted sleep according to my Fitbit and have wondered if I am sleep deprived.

I would appreciate any references to articles about sleep cycles, REM, sleep deprivation, etc.

Thank you.

[CobaltStargazer]

 @Colinm39 

How do you create a custom chart to cover when you are sleeping?

I see charts on this Forum which I never see on my Dashboard ( I have to use the Windows Dashboard to see my results - and it seems really limited to me).

Can you spell out how you get that chart you show please?

[Colinm39]

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@CobaltStargazer wrote:

@ @Colinm39 

How do you create a custom chart to cover when you are sleeping?

I see charts on this Forum which I never see on my Dashboard ( I have to use the Windows Dashboard to see my results - and it seems really limited to me).

Can you spell out how you get that chart you show please?

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@CobaltStargazer You create a Custom Activity and @wildweeder has given a point by point description in this post.

See how you go and let us know.

[nkotblove]

@tbruno123

Hello I have 2 fitbit device one was a fitbit zip and I lost it one day

and at x-mas time last year i got a new fitbit Charge HR and I love it it's nice....

Every steps its keeps me moving up more steps I like to see my steps go up and up I am up to now 13k steps a day..

that's awesome to get more steps in

[mamona6]

I actually found the tracker helpful.  I noticed that on the days where I binged on The Walking Dead, ( trying to catch up ) there were a lot of restless reports like 6-7 and waking up 3 times.  When I cut back to just two episodes. I would have maybe 2 -3 restless periods waking 1-2.  I also noticed that when I woke up around 3AM I was overheated.  I reporgramed the themostat on my heater and now I sleep through the night. 

[dollyg1944]

So you're saying that the solid dark blue on the graph is REM sleep, right?

Thanks!

dollyg1944

[Astatine]

Jileha - Thank you for such a superb answer/response. And for such detailed and well written information.