Total Daily Sleep Time Inaccurate

[mechanesthesia]

If you have ever slept more than once in a day in your life, forget about using Fitbit to accurately track your sleep.  No, you are not confused and there is nothing wrong with your eyes.  Apparently the developers at Fitbit are unable to program any sort of function to add your total sleep for the entire day.  In the meantime they are stealing money from us users who purchased these products and even wasted $50 for the "premium" service so we could track our sleep and get accurate sleep reports.

Nope.  Fitbit only tracks the LONGEST sleep record.  

Took a 2 hour nap? Doesn't count!

Woke up in the middle of the night, and went back to sleep?  Doesn't count!

Studies have already suggested that a monophasic 8-hour sleep schedule is a myth.  This sleep pattern has only recently been adopted with the industrial age, but yet a 1/3rd of Americans are unable to adopt this type of pattern.  Historically, a biphasic sleep schedule was more common.  They would call it "1st sleep" and "2nd sleep," where people would normally be awake for a few hours in between... Now doesn't it make sense why sometimes you wake up mid-sleep only to fall asleep a little while later?

Check out these links for more info:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/8-hour-sleep-myth_n_1322376.html

Also, let's not leave out the polyphasic sleep enthusiasts...

It's frustrating just how little Fitbit understands their target market.  For those of us who like to track everything, we are on top of stuff like the aforementioned links...  Why isn't the company who is SELLING this on top of these things?

I am very upset that the people at Fitbit would go this long without noticing such a simple thing and have the audacity to sell this product like this while misleading their customers.  

EXAMPLE:

Today I took two "power naps" as seen on my log.  One for 17 mins and one for 20 mins:

In the dashboard, it only shows the longest sleep record, which is 20 mins.  This is not accurate:

The sleep report you pay $50 to see also has this erroneous information, it only shows one sleep record per day.  

It gets better.  Guess what, this is how the $50 report portrays the information to you, as a graph showing how you rank with everyone else.  If you actually add it up and average it out, it DOES NOT take into account this "missing sleep time."  It only takes into account the longest sleep record.  So if one day you slept 5 hours, then you slept another 4 hours, those 4 hours don't count and are not added to your average or to the daily totals, and if you do this more than once in a week, you can already see how your total sleep will be under-reported.

This is EXTREMELY misleading.  In my case, I actually showed these graphs to my doctor and was prescribed medicine based on it.  Can you imagine the consequences?

Moderator Edit: Subject edited for issue clarification and word choice

[NXC]

I'm an engineer and understand the limits of designs - You don't seem to have that understanding. With the features we get with his products, we are getting quite a bargain. You need to understand them, their limitations and how to use them to your best abilities and use. The price we pay for this product is so little compared with the technology and service we are getting. Grow up

[Sabrinamoore84]

I can say from experience that a real sleep lab will give you 100%. The patient is hooked up to wires that measure leg movements, heart rate, oxygen levels, eye movements and brain waves. My sleep study for one night and one day was about $2500 without insurance. The Fitbit cannot posibly compare with that type of professional study. In my opinion, this type of technology is in the primitive stages and in the future will most likely be a lot better and a lot accurate.

---

@ka9568 wrote:

There are several comments I agree with.  1 this is not a full sleep lab to give you 100% (by the way will a full sleep lab give you 100%... Maybe but not guranteed.  I do understand your numbers.

I turned on my sleep function at 9:50 and off at 7:30 that is 9.5 hours... it show 8h &40min... again I was awake for 30 min and restless for 24min.  A stop watch will not give you restless hours where you are asleep but moving a lot.  For a hondo it is pretty good for me.

---

[Sabrinamoore84]

What happens if I fall asleep and do not know it? Will it know I am asleep or just think I am inactive? Or do I have to manually set it before I take a nap?

[Sabrinamoore84]

I am an accountant and understand the value of a dollar. Why would one pay extra for a service that is inaccurate? I think that is all people are saying. Also, if no one posts complaints then the company will not know there is a problem. Without knowledge that there is a problem, there will be no solution.

---

@NXC wrote:

I'm an engineer and understand the limits of designs - You don't seem to have that understanding. With the features we get with his products, we are getting quite a bargain. You need to understand them, their limitations and how to use them to your best abilities and use. The price we pay for this product is so little compared with the technology and service we are getting. Grow up

---

[sgtgary]

Grow up he says - a bit passive agressive?

I'm a computer engineer and I dont think it would take more than 2 or 3 lines of code to properly summarize the total sleep for the day if a user prefers that. Fitbit was cutting edge for its time but it now faces fierce competition from a multitude of other similar devices.  I will vote with my dollar and get a different device if I believe it functions far better and closer to my needs.  

[NXC]

I agree with the accountant and engineer.  I was responding to  MECHANESTHESIA ? who wrote in part:
. "" In the meantime they are stealing money from us users who purchased these products and even wasted $50 for the "premium" service so we could track our sleep and get accurate sleep reports.

Nope.  Fitbit only tracks the LONGEST sleep record.  

Took a 2 hour nap? Doesn't count!
Woke up in the middle of the night, and went back to sleep?  Doesn't count!
 
DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!  Buyer beware!""  
 
 This is not an overly expensive product for it's substantial capabilities. I'm well pleased with it. And agree it will continue to improve and constructive feedback should be appreciated by the manufacturer.

[sgtgary]

My apologies, it's a bit confusing in the email to tell who is replying to who in a thread this long. 🙂

[Leopardfish1]

I'm a consumer and I understand the power of truthful advertising.  This product falls far below it's claims of sleep monitoring accuracy.  Sorry.  The product is in accurate which means that the data can't be trusted which means its sleep monitoring function for which we are all paying is almost useless.  I say "almost" because it can give you a rough idea of how you slept.  We aren't paying for a rough idea.

[bruce_]

Part of the reason Fitbit sleep monitoring is less that perfect is a limitation on what can be determined by a sensor attached only to an arm. I understand that. Another problem, however, is in the analysis of the data that's recorded. If I view a segment from an afternoon nap I can accept how the results are broken down into Awake/Restless/Asleep. If I arbitrarily edit the data to include the next minute after I got out of bed, I expect (1) that none of the data during the nap will change and (2) I'll see one more minute [most likely Awake] tacked on that display, so the total Asleep time should not change. Often, I find that the nap data DOES change and the total Asleep time and Restless time change with it. What's going on?
____________________________________________________________
The #1 Worst Carb Ever?
Click to Learn #1 Carb that Kills Your Blood Sugar (Don't Eat This!)
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3131/54c988154fd0081542fast04duc

[MaritaMe]

I noticed also that sleep records are not accurate, but do give an ideas how good you slept or didn't sleep most of the night. I would like to know what best to use sensetive trucker or normal. What is your opinion on it? Thank you.

[ladybrit]

I just switched mine to sensitive and I don't see any difference!

[mechanesthesia · Accepted solution]

Solution: Get a Jawbone UP24

This topic has been getting a lot of activity lately.  It seems as though the programmers have not added those "3 lines of code" since I posted it 3 years ago.  Too much time spent on marketing and little on actual customer satisfaction and fixing usability issues. 

Since then I've tried the NikeFuelband SE which was even worse since they fired all their engineers last year and their app and website got even more buggy to the point of unusability. 
I have settled on the Jawbone UP24 which is probably the best tracker out there in terms of sleep from my experience.  [The Basis Peak looks even better but it is out of stock and I haven't tried it].  

The Jawbone UP24 actually tracks your total sleep "per day" and gives you an accurate weekly average based on that, rather than tracking individual datapoints which skew the data if you deign to take any naps or wake up in the middle of the night and go back to sleep later.  Fully charged, it lasts 13 days!
See picture below for yourself, I am very happy with it after all of these issues I've had with other trackers:

[rc3]

Have used a FitBit One, Force, Flex, and now a Surge since 12/14. Sleep tracking has gotten better, and the auto algorithm is OK, if you check your daily total to ensure that the times were correct. Many times I am reading and the sensor decides I'm sleeping, but not...even though I have it switched to "sensitive". But all I have to do is to correct the times, or delete the awake time mistaken for sleep.

There is the occasional time when I have to enter manually the times/amt of sleep, like when I am charging it and forget. But on my HTC One M8 dashboard, if I have corrected whatever, the total sleep for that day is correct, and I can depend on a fairly close history of my sleep.

BUT, if I want to compare my sleep by week/month/year/time, the reports are wrong because of a simple omission of addition on FitBit's software. Also if you have bought the Premium, your sleep report is hindered by results that have NO value, whatsoever. All because your daily sleep sessions cannot be totaled by DAY, and parsed to a report for whatever period of time.

So, my Surge will keep track of all of my daily sleep and give me accurate reporting if I look at it, or the Dashboard by DAY ONLY. If I have taken one or two naps, or have broken sleep periods, for reporting purposes as applicable to periods of time: week, month, year...grabs ONLY the ONE time period of each day that incorporates the MOST time. Not the total of ALL the sleep periods. This probably has more to do with FitBit software code separating out the "AWAKE" and "RESTLESS" data, but only allowing for a single data set, one "awake" and one "restless" per day, to be including into the TIME PERIOD reporting, be it a Dashboard report, or a Premium Sleep report.

I see this problem is not new by the comments that I have read. That FitBit has not responded with a FIX, is a problem. The code fix in each of the present devices firmware is not rocket science. Maybe they don't feel that Sleep is a priority in the scheme of things.

I can tell you one thing. As of now, I am putting FitBit on notice that my expectations for this product include tracking the history of my sleep by daily/weekly/monthly/yearly totals including a breakdown of "Awake" and "Restless" within the history protocol.

I have been pleased with FitBit's responses in the past, so I will give them an opportunity, and a timeline for reasonable execution of a "FIX".

Tracking Sleep history is just as important as any other activity. In some cases, it is more important...to have, in my case histories of my sleep, heart rate, exercise...because I have A-Fib (heart condition) and Sleep Apnea. Why create a daily Journal and custom "Trackers" in how you feel/are over time, if you can't even track your SLEEP correctly????

Well, I think you know what I mean. Also, I wasn't picking on your comment, I just thought I would jump in as I had thought about this for a while without checking for a solution. I'll post this to the group as well.

[DarkScribe]

Total, ill-considered bias. The device works well, it inlcudes all sleep times. I tend to sleep at various times, night, afternoon and mid-morning.  Have a hectic lifestyle and sleep when I can. It records ALL sleep, and does so accurately. 

[higginsdj]

@DarkScribe I know what you mean....  The glory of anonymity on an online forum.  Users who 'put fitbit on notice'.  My goodness people need to get a grip and stop whinging.  If you have an issue then take it up with support.  If you have a solution or workaround to a problem - post it.  Seriously, do you really think fitbit is going to take notice of veilled threats to do, effectively, nothing on a public internet forum?

And for all the so called IT experts out there - you are so full of it.  You have no idea what the data looks like, how it is extracted, analysed or stored so ANY assessment you might make on how 'simple' this is to fix (assuming there is a real problem) is rubbish.  (I've been working in the real IT world for 35 years)

[mechanesthesia]

Thank you @rc3 for confirming that this issue still remains.  

@DarkScribe
It seems you did not comprehend the message.  Our issue was not with recording but rather with reporting.  Please refer to my original message so you can understand what I was talking about, which was a non-biased, objective issue.

@higginsdj
As the original poster with the same issue, I have my photo and information clearly visible to the public, so your hypothesis about "anonimity" doesn't hold up.  Regardless of what level of "anonymity" someone choses to exercise has nothing whatsoever to do with how valid their claims are. I did take up my issue with support as well at that point and it was just a frustrating experience.  They didn't understand after multiple explanations and when they did, it just seemed like I got the run around.  That is what led me to post on this forum to let others know and see if others are experiencing the same issue.

 
And on that note, I'm unsubscribing from this thread.  3 years is more than enough time to fix a simple issue concerning the presentation of data.  Doesn't look like I will be a returning Fitbit customer at this point, which is a shame, because I was really happy with their product.

[rc3]

I also passed along my thoughts to tech support as a second step in resolving this issue. I plan to pursue a logical course of followup at each level above support until fixed, or if not, then have disclosed these benign features that really don't and haven't worked as advertised or marketed to date to all owners of the product. All current and future inclusion of these false claims within the promotion, sales and marketing, including the Premium product, would be immediately withdrawn from retail and online sales.

I only want the reports to work as they were designed, not executed. We are paying for a myriad of tracking reports which should work like all the others, so that we will have working and sensible tools in our quest for a level of fitness. Also, the competition has correct reporting. The bugs got left in the code, and the code needs to be fixed, whatever it takes to fix. Because you've already sold product and services predicated on these reports working correctly, then that increases Fitbits overall liability issues.




Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab® S

[higginsdj]

Yes, a photo and all that information that can uniquely identify you.....  Oh wait - it's just a picture of a person - yes no anonymity at all!

My comments were not directed at you directly but at all those people who chose to air their indigity at the situation is such self righteous ways.  I am not defending fitbit - if there is a process/function that needs to be addressed then it is up to them to do it - but we have no idea what this will involve and in any case they, as a business, need to determine the cost/benefit.   Spend $X for 100 out of 1,000,000 users?  Yes, I just made those figures up but none of us know what the actuals are and fitbit as a company will actually do what is best for them.  

Yes, it is a shame that you are choosing to no longer be a fitbit customer, but like any consumer you are best placed to determine what is best for you and I fully support your right to make those choices - but remember, fitbit has the same rights to make their choices!

Cheers

David

[ladybrit]

How were you able to copy the sleep graph!  I've tried, but all I got was a tiny graph!  Isigned up for Premium, but still haven't been able to blow up to the size you have!  I'd like to show my doctor a copy, because it seems in 8 hours, all I have is 3 to 4 hrs sleep the rest is all restless.  Can you tell me how to do that?
Thanks!

[rc3]

Do you realize that you have responded to a thread in which you have totally misunderstood the message? And kept responding. Indignantly. And self-righteously. And nothing you said means a whit, nor adds anything to the problems/functions/features discussed, nor the solutions available. Why would you continue to answer a question never begged? And with attitude. ??? This comment does not require a response.