4 Hours Sleep? Really

Digbysmom

I'm new to Fitbit and for the past two nights I've slept with the Fitbit on my wrist. Although it says I'm in bed for 7 - 8 hours it shows I'm only getting a little over 4 hours sleep a night. Apparently I woke up 8 times the first night and 12 times the second. I certainly don't recall laying awake, so I'm wondering if this is measuring deep sleep. Although I often feel tired during the day and catch myself yawning a lot, I was incredibly surprised to see 4 hours sleep.

Has anyone else seen such disparity between the time in bed and actual sleep?

Pam

Digbysmom

I'm just bumping this in the hopes someone's had a similar stat.

picimadar

Try changing your fitbit's settings from sensitive to normal on fitbit's website. I have been in bed for 9 hours and gotten 4 hours of sleep, waking up close to 40 times. Most of the time I wake up over 20... I don't get very good sleeps and I know that, but I'm USED to waking up tired. It could be that you are too, or it could just be a fluke!

sarahrbraun

I haven't shown anything THAT extreme, but I have shown that there were nights that I woke up like 15 times. Look at the red spikes on the graph--did you have wake ups like every 30-45 minutes? were you *awake* for like 5-10 minutes at a time? From what I understand, when you are in a deep sleep, you don't really move much. Somehow it tracks MAJOR moves, like rolling over in bed, as being awake. You may not have been *awake* for 3-4 hours, but you might have had a cruddy, restless night...

picimadar

Yup, that's exactly what it means. By 'awake' it basically means 'no longer in a stage 2 or deeper sleep'. You might not consciously awaken, but your body isn't resting if you're rolling over and waiting to go back into another REM state.

Digbysmom

Thanks everyone. I'm pretty sure I'm a restless sleeper. I know I toss and turn a lot. I'm adjusting the setting to normal for tonight and I'll see if that makes a difference. Boy no wonder I wake up tired!

Thanks again.

Pam

sarahrbraun

another thing you might want to look into if you are *always* tired despite ample opportunity to sleep, ask your doctor about having a sleep study done. My husband was a LOUD snorer, and got to the point where he spent most of the week nights dozing on the couch, and 90% of the weekend asleep on the couch. When the doctor sent him for a sleep study, he was found to have moderate sleep apnea--he was stopping breathing about 6 times an hour. Once he got a CPAP machine, a good bit of the extreme exhaustion went away.