Fitbit Surge not recoding sleep?

[Emsaunders80]

Morning. 

Sunday night my sleep app looked different giving me sleep time/awake time/R.E.M. In percentages and now my sleep isn't getting logged at all. 

Does anyone else have this?

thanks

[Kapppa]

Did this really happen on your Surge? I thought sleep stages weren't meant to be available on the Surge, only Blaze, Charge 2 and Alta HR. Maybe you own other devices as well?

[Emsaunders80]

No, I definitely only own a surge. But I've only had that one recording and since then it won't log my sleep at all...

[Kapppa]

In case you don't consider this a breach to your privacy, would really love to see a screenshot of the night your Surge recorded sleep phases.

Thanks.

[Emsaunders80]

Of course. How do I upload a photo? 

[Emsaunders80]

.

[Emsaunders80]

[DwightC]

I have a Surge also. I have never seen the bottom picture. Would love to have that. This new dashboard does nothing for me.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @Emsaunders80, @DwightC and @Kapppa! Nice to see you around and place your comments about changes on the Dashboard regarding sleep! 

Thanks for the pictures @Emsaunders80, I would like to know if you have owned another Fitbit tracker before your Surge, for example Fitbit Charge 2, Blaze or Alta HR; since I should agree with @Kapppa, Sleep stages features is only available for those models.

We've being receiving some feedback from other users reporting issues checking sleep information after the last update for sleep. But, we're still checking that information, as soon as we know for sure what is happening; we'll be posting information about it on the Forums.

Can you please confirm hows the view from the Fitbit.com Dashboard in a computer. You can log in into your account and tap on the Sleep Tile, you should have the sleep pattern for the last days. If you click on bar according the date you would like to see you should have the sleep information. If the date is not there please restart your Surge a couple of times and give a try the next day!

Thanks for reporting this and keep me posted on the resolution! 

[Andy_CC]

My Surge very rarely logs any sleep at all but when it does, it includes all the sleep stages even though numerous posts on this forum say that it shouldn't.

[YojanaFitbit]

I've noticed you are new around @Andy_CC, so let me give you a warm welcome to our Community. 

Thanks for sharing this picture! I think that yours is showing the correct information, since the graphic they were seeing shows REM, Light and Deep Stages. Now, if your Surge is not tracking your sleep every time that you wear it at night, please restart it a couple of times and try again. 

And please keep me posted! 

[RichardMW]

YojanaFitbit,
As I suspect you know, the FitBit does not record your sleep very well if you keep waking up.

My understanding is that you have to be asleep for more than 1 hour before it records the time interval as sleep.

In my case, I wake up often during the first few hours trying to sleep. Example, if I go to bed to sleep at 1 AM, get up briefly at 2 and again at 3 AM & then sleep until 8 AM, my Surge will report that I slept from 3 AM to 8 AM. I have to go in everyday and edit my sleep statistics.

By the way, with the recent update to the FitBit dashboard in a browser, it is more difficult to do the daily sleep editing.

[Andy_CC]

Although I appreciate what you're saying Richard and it does make sense for the Fitbit to wait an hour to before registering non movement as sleep but as you can see from the screenshot there are periods of sleep recorded that are under an hour. It even logs sleep and then says you slept for 0 minutes. Overall I am very disappointed with the Surge. For the money spent I would at least expect it to do what's advertised and with a bit more accuracy. My issue is that the sleep logging is so intermittent and inaccurate that it's not worth having. 

[RichardMW]

Andy_CC,

I wish a forum monitor would step in and tell use exactly how the FitBit decides when we are asleep and when we were exercising.

Basically I agree with you.

The fitbit automatic sleep tracking algorithms are flawed.

I don't think that the failure in my case to detect short intervals of sleep is a flaw.

At the very least, I would like to be able to specify how the parameters it uses to decide when I am asleep.

Also the automatic exercise detection. I have to manually tell the FitBit how  and when I am exercising. Sometimes it detects it ans sometimes it does not.

But, I still like the total package. A watch, timer, step counter, heart rate monitor.

I just wish it was better.

[Andy_CC]

Went to bed at 10:20pm last night and was asleep within 10 minutes. Woke at 2:00am and went straight back to sleep. Finally woke when my alarm went off at 5:45am. According to Fitbit I slept for a total of 2hr 44min between 02:09 and 04:55. That to me confirms that the Surge is not fit for purpose and does not do what Fitbit claims it does.

It's like buying a watch that claims to tell the time 24 hours a day but only shows the time intermittently throughout the day. 

If a product claims to do something then it should do it ALL the time and not sometimes.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @RichardMW and @Andy_CC! Thanks for sharing your comments, really loved this conversation, thanks for attaching those pictures!

Both of you have really good points. I'd like to clarify that new Fitbit tracker wristbands with PurePulse LED lights, use 2 things to determine if you're sleeping: 1. Your movements  2. Your HR data. @RichardMW One hour is just an estimated time frame as you can see in this article about how trackers automatically detect sleep. And about @Andy_CC's little naps, your Surge will use the patterns of your HR information to determine if you're sleeping. You can record your sleep in either "sensitive" mode for extremely detailed sleep reporting or "normal" mode for a more basic idea of your sleep patterns.

• Fitbit app for iOS and Windows 10
  1. From the Fitbit app dashboard, tap or click the Account icon 
  2. Tap or click Advanced Settings > Sleep Sensitivity.
• fitbit.com dashboard
  1. Log into your fitbit.com dashboard and click the gear icon in the top right.
  2. Go to Settings > Devices and scroll down to Sleep Tracking.

If you've noticed that your Surge is not tracking your sleep as it should, as I mentioned before restart your surge a couple of times and if that doesn't solve the issue report it. 

@RichardMW I'd like to know, which exercises are not being tracked by your Surge? 

I'll be around! 

[RichardMW]

YojanaFitbit,

The Surge is not going well tracking exercise for me automatically.

Answering your question, it does not accurately detect Elliptic Trainer, Running vs Walking on treadmill and Weights. Part of the problem is probably me. I am 74. Once upon a time, I ran 7 or 8 minute miles on a treadmill for 20 minutes+. That was a long time ago and now my running speeds are closer to what I used to think of as fast walking.

Are you working on "sleep stages" for the Surge? That would be great.

I just reset my Surge 3 times and will check if sleep is detected more accurately.

Again, the problem is partially me and my difficulty staying asleep. Typically, I go to sleep around 1 AM, wake up briefly around 2 AM and  again at 3 AM, 6 AM and finally get out of bed at 9 AM. Fitbit often thinks I have fallen asleep around 5 AM and got up at 9 AM. I have to edit this every day.

I would ideally like some setting in the Surge sleep control algorithm that would work better for me. I tried "sensitive" mode vs. "normal". If I used "sensitive", FitBit thinks I never fell asleep.

Thanks for that link that outlines how FitBit determines sleep.

Question. That article says "If you track sleep with Alta HR, Blaze, or Charge 2, Fitbit uses a combination of your movement and heart rate patterns to estimate your sleep stages".

Is that also true for the Surge?

I am finding that is more difficult to edit yesterday's sleep pattern in Chrome on a PC after your recent update for several reasons.

Before, I could enter start and wake time and click save.

Now, instead of 1 click of save, I have to click "edit" twice. Annoying.

Also, before on the bar that shows asleep vs awake in a graphic, I could hover over the red sleep bar and it would show me the time..That is gone.

Also missing is "time to fall asleep".

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @RichardMW! Nice to see you again, thanks for replying and you're welcome; I'm here to help!

I have a couple of suggestions for you, thanks for explaining with details the issues that you're having with your Surge!

About the activities that are not being recognized automatically, as you mentioned that your fitness condition is not the same that the one you had some years ago (totally normal). You can take advantage of your Surge features and use the Multi-Sport option; to track Elliptical, Runs and Walks activities. I'd recommend track your Treadmill activities with the option "Workout", and later on name the activity as "Treadmill" to have more accurate information. 

If you're still looking an option to log activities or edit activities see this post on how to do it in a computer. In your phone you can open the Fitbit App > Tap on Track exercise (this tile has the picture of a little man running) > Tap on the stop watch > Log Previous.

I think that Sleep Stages for Surge could be an excellent option for you, I haven't heard any updates about it. But I would like to encourage you submit your vote and comments in this suggestion: Sleep Stages for Surge.  You can comment and vote for this suggestion in that board; so it can be implemented in a future.

It's looks like you have really sensitive sleep. Have you checked it with an specialist? I found 5 tips to improve sleep in our Discussion Forums, that might help you! I'd suggest keeping your sleep Settings in "Normal" option, and lets wait for the next pattern of sleep to see if it changes. Next time, you might attach a picture, it'd be greatly appreciated. And answering to your question, Surge also uses the  combination of your movement and heart rate patterns to estimate your sleep, but not Sleep Stages. As you know this feature is not included in the Fitbit Surge.

Sorry if the new way to edit sleep on the Fitbit.com Dashboard has been difficult to handle. Have you tried to do so on your phone? Maybe it is easier for you doing it from there. Just tap on the Sleep Tile and pick the day you want edit using the pencil on the upper right corner. The Fitbit Dashboard has being modify lately and our team is working very hard on delivering the best options for all users; you can check more information about changes on the Dashboard in this post. 

Good luck tracking your sleep! Keep me posted!