Sleep tracking reliability

Sabine_Stroehm
Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
How many times does your fitbit say you were awake and restless on a given night?
I know it over estimates my sleep, but am curious about the rest. (no pun intended)

Replies

  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I'm getting the Alta soon (zip currently ), so would like to see the answers too.
  • NancyN795
    NancyN795 Posts: 1,134 Member
    It varies. I take the sleep tracking with a grain of salt, although most of the time if I feel like I got a good night's sleep, my stats do reflect that, so it can be used in a relative fashion - determine what is normal for you and then work from that point. For me, I find that if my sleep efficiency is above 90% (this number, as far as I can tell, is only available on the website, not the mobile app) then I feel fairly well rested. My goal is 7 hours of sleep (as measured by my Fitbit), but I typically get between 6 and 7. Less than 6 hours and I'm dragging. More than 6 hours, but with a sleep efficiency of <90%, and I'm dragging. Unfortunately, sleep is a lot harder to control than steps, exercise and food, so increasing my sleep time and quality has been tough.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Thanks Nancy. I find mine overestimates, I think. I can know I've just laid there for hours, but, (logically, I guess) the fitbit says I slept. For example for Wednesday night it says I was awake 5times, restless 26 times, awake/restless 1hr and 20 minutes, but I KNOW it was much longer than that.
    And yes, sleep is much harder to control than steps!

    thanks for the replies.
  • Bibia2418
    Bibia2418 Posts: 80 Member
    Over estimates my awake time, I think. Spot on how long I am in bed, though.
  • NancyN795
    NancyN795 Posts: 1,134 Member
    I find that it has trouble detecting when I actually went to bed but is pretty good about knowing when I woke up. So, I try to note when I get into bed at night so that I can go back and edit the record in the morning. That way, I can get a more accurate "time to fall asleep" number. Interestingly, it also usually ends up calculating a little bit less sleep, even though the "went to bed" time is earlier. For instance, for last night, I adjusted the time I went to bed to 10 minutes earlier and my "actual sleep time" went down by 12 minutes. My sleep efficiency went up from 92% to 95%, though.
  • _AalexisA_
    _AalexisA_ Posts: 41 Member
    I'm not sure I don't really pay attention to it.