Sleep time percentages

[MSaraM]

Hi Fitbit Community. I'm interested in the percentages placed against sleep results. As a Fibromyalgia convalescent I have a problem getting enough Deep sleep and find my fitbit a useful resource on days when I think I've slept well but actually feel grim because my deep sleep has been as low as only 16 mins. Interestingly, last  night it was considerably better. 65 mins Yet it suggested I was only in deep sleep 11%. Since deep sleep is only 150 mins a night this percentage surely should reflect how long it SHOULD be  within  the150 mins deep sleep allocation for 8hrs rest, rather than overall compared to light REM and awake?

[JohnnyRow]

I'm not sure I understand your question.  Are you questioning the accuracy of Fitbit's calculation, or are you saying it should be comparing your sleep stages to set amount rather than % of your sleep?

Also, check you are reading numbers correctly. If 65 minutes was 11% of your sleep, that means you got close to 10 hours of actual sleep, which could be right but is worth checking.

Then you toss in 150 minutes.  I have no idea where that came from.  Are you saying that is some standard of the amount of deep sleep people should get?  If so, I would like to see your source.  And the amount in different stages certainly varies by age.

[MSaraM]

Yes thanks, no not disputing accuracy at all. I understand how the Fitbit
app relates the percentages, but it seems more useful /important to know
the percentage of Deep sleep achieved versus how much Deep sleep per night
is normal; perhaps more so than percentage of deep sleep vs light /rem /
awake periods that are currently recorded.
I know people who have been inconsolable in blogposts because their Fitbit
said they "only got a lousy 2.5hrs deep sleep" (I should be so lucky!) not
realising that was actually good.

[MSaraM]

Hi I've just  checked one of the sources I was looking at and realise that I  was perhaps confused. 

 https://www.healthline.com/health/how-much-deep-sleep-do-you-need

11-13% of total skeep time is actually correct for deep sleep.

My apologies

[JohnnyRow]

A quick glance at that article looks like it says 13-23%.

But I was going to add, I agree it would be helpful to see my #s compared to what they should be, but I expect part of that problem is lack of any real scientific data about what absolute amounts should be, and maybe there is much variability between people.

That article compares %s to others, but Fitbit goes a step beyond that and compares to benchmark of people your age and sex.  But who's to know if they benchmark average is ideal?

[MSaraM]

True. I guess we all get confused. Hence the inconsolable blogger!

[MSaraM]

Hiya, Interestingly I've just done a quick calcultion using your percentages of my recent 65 mins deep sleep = 11%

65 ÷11 × 23 is roughly 2hrs 25 mins which fits the 2hrs 30 mins I originally mentioned.

Regards Madeleine