Sleep score not accurate

[dasboot]

Sleeping soundly is rated less than being awake

For at least 3 nights in the past month, I've slept for less than 3 hours in the night. These nights get a sleep score of 80-90.

Other nights when I've slept

19.1% 16x Awake
1 hrs 35 mins

22.5% REM
1 hrs 52 mins

39.8% Light
3 hrs 18 mins

18.5% Deep
1 hrs 32 mins

Get scores of 70% ish.

On all the nights where I have slept little, if at all, it gives me better scores than when I've slept soundly in my bed from start to finish.

[Julia_G]

Hi, @dasboot , the sleep score gives quite a heavy weighting for your heartrate.

As you may know, Fitbit calculates resting heartrate a little differently from most methods.   The conventional way of calculating resting heartrate js your heartrate first thing in the morning when you first wake up, but before you have got out of bed and exerted yourself in any way.

In contrast, Fitbit takes an average of your heartrate throughout the day when you are quiet (no recent steps detected).  From thar it gives you a daily resting heartrate.

For the “sleep score” it looks at the amount of time when your heartrate was at, or below, your calculated resting heartrate.  It combines that with the other information, like what per cent was REM, Deep, light, awake, and gives you a score for that sleep.  

So, although on another occasion you may have slept longer, if the percentages weree lower, and your heartrate higher the “sleep score” will reflect an indication that that sleep (whatever its duration) was less restful, and therefore you will get a lower score.

It is just another piece of information, along with sleep timing, your sleep stages, benchmarks, etc.

I hope this helps to make it clearer!

[dasboot]

It may be clearer how you calculate it, but I'm telling you it's wrong.

On two nights where I didn't sleep until 4am then got up at 9am, having gone to bed at 10pm. They have multiple periods awake, in fact right up until 4am in both instances.

They got scores of 85 plus despite the fact I woke up feeling spaced out and knowing I hadn't had a decent night's sleep.

This is not an accurate method.

[Julia_G]

Hi, @dasboot , obviously how you feel is a better indication than any “score”!  And equally obviously, Fitbit is not a medical device (or a mind reader)...

The ‘sleep score’ aspect of Fitbit is very new, so I would say only time will tell how well this works for any individual.

I would recommend looking at your trends over time and see if your recent experience continues or if you find that, despite occasional blips, you do get any valuable insight into your sleep pattern.  

My personal experience is so far a little varied, but for myself I noticed that over the last 3 nights, for example, I have had very similar hours in bed (just over 7).  Friday I got a ‘fair’ with 64, Saturday I got a ‘poor’ at 55.  I was certainly yawning and feeling grumpy and tired all afternoon on Sunday, so probably about right... Last night I got a ‘good’ at 81 (although only 3 minutes difference in sleep time) and so far I really do feel much better than I did yesterday.  So I am sticking with it, for now, and seeing how it goes...

And, btw, I didn’t look at my score for those 3 days until I replied to you... So my feelings weren’t influenced by the score.  I genuinely felt badly underslept all weekend, felt better today, then looked at your question and at my own sleep score...

[dasboot]

I'm no noob.
I've had my fitbit since 2016 and I've been using the sleep insights for at least 18 months, since I got my Blaze.

I don't find the insights inaccurate.

My experience with the 'score' has been the opposite to yours, the lower the score, the better the sleep. Or alternatively, the highest scores have represented the worst nights sleep.

I think this 'score' is a gimick, and I don't see what it's based on.

[SunsetRunner]

I got this specifically to track sleep and the sleep score really is atrociously inaccurate compared to the sleep data. In all cases the low scores are my best night sleep, looking at the high percentages in each stage & the worst nights have the highest sleep scores with the lower percentages on each stage. The new oxygen levels also show that when I have a high variation my sleep score is higher?!! And my heart rate has remained pretty constant in all cases. Time to get an Aura...

[jikou]

Thanks Julia_G for your support and time! 

I am not a sleep expert but I also feel that the sleep score is not so much accurate. Please see my comments below

1) When I sleep 6hr and 58 min I get an equal or lower score than when I sleep less than 5 hours. However, when I sleep less than 5 hours, I lack energy the next day. 

2) When I sleep less than 5 hours I take a greater score than when I sleep 6hr and 3 min (even though I hit the benchmark). 

The data is below: 

Sleep Score	Duraion
78	4h 54 min
			Min	%
		Awake	46 min	13%
		REM	59 min	17%
		Light	2hr 42min	47%
		Deep	1hr 13min	21%
78	6hr 58 min
			Min	%
		Awake	1hr 27min	17%
		REM	44 min
		Light	4hr 9 min	49%
		Deep	2hr 5 min	24%
77	6hr 3 min
			Min	%
		Awake	39 min	9%
		REM	1hr 12 min	17%
		Light	3hr 45 min	55%
		Deep	1hr 6min	16%
81	4hr 37 min
			Min	%
		Awake	28min	9%
		REM	1hr 8min	22%
		Light	2hr 33min	50%
		Deep	56 min	18%

Enjoy your day 🙂 

[Rosiesride1]

Wouldn't more deep sleep be an indication of a "better" more restful sleep?  I just started tracking my sleep 🤦🏻‍:female_sign:🤦🏻‍:female_sign:🤦🏻‍:female_sign:...not too many minutes in deep sleep...exhausted most days🤷🏻‍:female_sign:

[Chunter7423]

When I wake in the morning and feel pretty good I have a low score.  Days i wake and still exhausted I'm getting a higher score. Not sure I am thrilled with Fitbit. Been using for 2 years.

[kevinbrown]

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@dasboot wrote:

I'm no noob.
I've had my fitbit since 2016 and I've been using the sleep insights for at least 18 months, since I got my Blaze YourHerbs.

I don't find the insights inaccurate.

My experience with the 'score' has been the opposite to yours, the lower the score, the better the sleep. Or alternatively, the highest scores have represented the worst nights sleep.

I think this 'score' is a gimick, and I don't see what it's based on.

---

Hi,

I also noticed the same pattern: the lower the score, the higher the quality of sleep.