sleep tracking gaps

[SpedAngie]

I cannot understand why my sleep data is showing gaps in time I was asleep.

It shows pretty accurately when I went to bed, if I got up for a couple of minutes (bathroom, drink, pet the cat, etc) and then continues when I went back to sleep.

The problem is that it frequently shows three sleep periods in one night.  One will end with showing me asleep.  Then there will be a time gap of one to three hours (and I was still in bed asleep) but this time is never accounted for; and then begin ANOTHER segment showing me still asleep.  This might once again show me awake for several brief intervals (I am sometimes a restless sleeper) and once again it ends with showing me asleep.

There will be another unaccounted for time gap when I was not awake, then sometimes a third segment is shown beginning with me asleep. 

Why is this happening.  I could even understand beginning a new tracking after I had been out of bed for a few minutes during the night (bathroom, drink seeing if it was snowing, pet the cat, etc) and then went back to bed. 

I cannot get why one segment ends WITH ME ASLEEP and another begins an hour or more later WITH ME STILL ASLEEP. 

I have begun jotting down every time I actually wake up enough to get out of bed and move around for 3-5 minutes and those are shown pretty accurately. I also do tend to wake up briefly more than once each night but not get up; these are depicted nicely as well.

  I have NO idea why there are these long spells of time where nothing is shown--one time ends with me asleep, then there is they mystery segment of an hour or two when apparantly I died and had no heartbeat; then there I am again (asleep) in a new tracking segment.

Any ideas what is going on here?

I have also noticed that even when there is no unaccounted for time, sometimes the tracking seems to be split into two or three strips, one below the other, but at least then there is no lost time; the first will end with me asleep at , oh say 1:50AM and the next, showing below the first, will show me asleep at 1:51AM, etc. Other times it just goes in one continuous line.

Additionally I wonder why the blue perpindicular lines that show you are asleep are very close together sometimes and further apart at others; any reason for that? 

All answers much appreciated.

[GoldaT]

Don't stress. The sleep test is noninvasive just a bit uncomfortable with
wires attached to to you to measure your sleep and restlessness . I've had
it done several times. All you have to do is sleep. Take care and sleep
well.

[TravellingRae]

I found this still active thread while trying to figure out why I had a huge gap in my night the night before last. I didn't find an answer, but I thought I might have something interesting to share. I have a Charge 3.

Night previous, the gap was right smack in the middle of the night and I cannot account for it at all. I don’t remember any particularly vivid dreams and it was a weird night that my FB data did not reflect how I felt — by the data, I should have been a zombie, but I actually felt pretty refreshed. I had maybe 15 steps registered overnight, if that much, meaning that I was out cold all night.

But this morning’s gap from 7AM to 9AM fascinating. I woke up around 6:20, read for a bit, and then tried to go back to sleep. FB caught that. And then, there’s a gap until FB recognised that I woke up. In that gap, I had a super vivid dream that I was running around a port preparing for a departure. When I finally woke up, I had over 500 steps registered in my Fitbit...

So I think that's evidence towards eliminating the theory that the gaps occur when FB thinks you're not wearing your tracker. In my case this morning, it knew I was wearing the tracker but seemed to not know how to process the data -- I was way too active to be asleep, but my heart rate was way too low to be awake. Hence a gap. But then, unlike the night previous, the gap disappeared after I'd been up for a while and moving around. My Charge 3 decided that even though I appeared active during the gap, I really had been asleep and filled in the gap with sleep data.

Therefore, my case, unless I later get evidence otherwise, I'm going to attribute gaps to my C3 getting conflicting data about whether or not I'm actually sleeping and manually edit when necessary. It would be amazing for Fitbit to be a company that would use this information to further "train" its devices -- ie. have the interface learn from manually inputted data. 😕

[Palma_girl2014]

I just got my Fitbit charge 3 after using Apple Watch for sports tracking and everyday for 4 years. I wanted to track sleep that’s why I changed, but very disappointed to see the same issue as you. There are unexplained grey gaps when I’m asleep and sometimes it’s split into two. Unless it improves I’m going back to Apple Watch as the main feature I wanted (sleep) isn’t working well.

[Charlesnester]

I agree with you. I have just the same issue.

[Palma_girl2014]

No I haven’t....wish I’d seen this forum before o bought my Fitbit though!

[Palma_girl2014]

Hi there - interesting. I suppose tech will evolve over time. I can’t be bothered to manually change so will just keep using Apple Watch alongside. I do like the Fitbit dashboard though - very neat.

[KatEvil82]

I checked my heartbeat tracker during my gray gap period and I noticed that the heartbeat data was missing from that same time period. My theory is my FB maybe moved funny on my wrist and couldn't take the proper readings.

[Bubbles7]

I have low blood pressure and I wondered if that had anything to do with it

Sent from my iPad

[Cindasue]

I have white gaps in my sleep graph.  I think it is caused be “rem sleep behavior disorder “. Or called RBD.  Does anyone have this?  The signs are talking, jumping, all kinds of movement during rem sleep while you are dreaming.  If your bed partner wakes you, the dream is very vivid to you.  

     Normally when you dream, your body is paralyzed during your rem sleep.  

[Cindasue]

Do you have “rem sleep behavior disorder?

[GoldaT]

I suffer from sleep apnea and sleep with a CPAP machine that helps. I
don't think I dream so I might be REM deprived as well.