Which is better for tracking sleep: Apple Watch of Fitbit?

cali_flower · June 2017

I don't sleep well. I'm up multiple times a night. Sometimes I have trouble falling asleep. When I do fall asleep I'm very restless. I probably get more exercise in my sleep then during the day.

I'd love to video tape myself at night and watch it.

I'm considering getting a sleep tracker. Maybe an Apple Watch of a fitbit. I want to know what my sleep is like, and I'm wondering if I can improve my sleep with more information.

I had a sleep study done once, but it didn't work because I was so restless I kept pulling the wires out. I was woken up at least once an hour by the sleep technician, so he could plug the wires back in. Didn't give any information.

lorrpb · June 2017

What information are you hoping to learn? About all either of these devices will tell you is that you're very restless. They monitor movement, not sleep. I suggest you follow up with the sleep doctor who ordered the original study. Even a "bad" sleep study can give information, there are other ways they can test, etc.

dr_soda · June 2017

I can't speak for the Apple Watch. I did recently obtain a Fitbit Charge 2, which does track sleep. The old firmware only tracks how restless your sleep was, but the current firmware attempts to characterize the sleep stage as being one of:

Awake
REM
Light
Deep

While these aren't the technical four stages of sleep, I've found that comparing the way I feel in the morning against the sleep graphs does seem to characterize accurately how well slept I feel in the morning, and it does appear to correctly determine wakefulness. I am adept at dream recall as well, so I believe it is on-point with its characterization of my REM vs Deep sleep. I cannot make any bold medical claims, but anecdotally, I do feel that seeing the graphs has somehow helped my sleep cycles to improve somewhat and to improve the restfulness of my sleep. If it's placebo, I'd rather not know.

For what it's worth, sleep stages and heart rate monitoring are possibly the only things I would recommend the Charge 2 for. It vastly overestimates the number of calories I burn in my daily life, or by simple walking. Eating the number of calories it claims I burn in a day would put me on a dirty bulk. Also, getting the Fitbit Charge 2 into a state where it would actually record and interpret the sleep stages instead of give me the simple restlessness report was a lot more troublesome than I would have expected.

ForecasterJason · June 2017

dr_soda wrote: »

I can't speak for the Apple Watch. I did recently obtain a Fitbit Charge 2, which does track sleep. The old firmware only tracks how restless your sleep was, but the current firmware attempts to characterize the sleep stage as being one of:
Awake

REM

Light

Deep

While these aren't the technical four stages of sleep, I've found that comparing the way I feel in the morning against the sleep graphs does seem to characterize accurately how well slept I feel in the morning, and it does appear to correctly determine wakefulness. I am adept at dream recall as well, so I believe it is on-point with its characterization of my REM vs Deep sleep. I cannot make any bold medical claims, but anecdotally, I do feel that seeing the graphs has somehow helped my sleep cycles to improve somewhat and to improve the restfulness of my sleep. If it's placebo, I'd rather not know.

For what it's worth, sleep stages and heart rate monitoring are possibly the only things I would recommend the Charge 2 for. It vastly overestimates the number of calories I burn in my daily life, or by simple walking. Eating the number of calories it claims I burn in a day would put me on a dirty bulk. Also, getting the Fitbit Charge 2 into a state where it would actually record and interpret the sleep stages instead of give me the simple restlessness report was a lot more troublesome than I would have expected.

I also just got the Charge 2 and agree with everything you said. I used to have the One and it didn't overestimate the calories burned as much as my Charge is. Just yesterday I did a 1-2 hr cardio/weight workout, followed by some additional walking. Considering I was pretty much sedentary for the rest of the day combined with being a very small male, I don't think there's any way I could have burned 3200 calories.

indiacaitlin · June 2017

Having had both a Fitbit and an Apple Watch, if you're looking to track sleep you may be better off with a FitBit. I say that because my Apple Watch is usually in need of a charge by the time I go to bed so I don't think it'd last the night to actually track the whole time I was asleep! Having said that, mine is the first generation so it may be different with the newer Apple Watch!

DianeinCA · June 2017

I use both for bed and they actually agree quite a bit. I use the AutoSleep app on the Apple Watch and I have a FB Alta.

I charge the Watch a bit in the morning and at night, I also set it to Theater mode at night (which prevents it from going off in the night too, thereby saving battery).

tbodyco · June 2017

Thanks DianeinCA

Carlos_421 · June 2017

indiacaitlin wrote: »

Having had both a Fitbit and an Apple Watch, if you're looking to track sleep you may be better off with a FitBit. I say that because my Apple Watch is usually in need of a charge by the time I go to bed so I don't think it'd last the night to actually track the whole time I was asleep! Having said that, mine is the first generation so it may be different with the newer Apple Watch!

The new Apple Watch actually holds a 48 hr charge.

Also, there is talk that Apple Watch 3 will have even better sleep monitoring since Apple bought Beddit.

kshama2001 · June 2017

I didn't get any actionable information from my fitbit. What helps me is working very diligently on my sleep hygiene. http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/getting/overcoming/tips

What are you doing along those lines?

NorthCascades · June 2017

These aren't medical devices. Go back to your doctor, redo the sleep study.

Which is better for tracking sleep: Apple Watch of Fitbit?

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