Sleep health can have a huge impact on your day to day life and routine. A good night’s sleep can help you feel motivated for the day. Conversely, a poor night’s sleep can affect your mood and motivation, making daily tasks feel like more of a challenge.
The average person spends 1/3 of every day asleep, meaning four months of every year are spent sleeping. It is, therefore, vital to ensure that you are sleeping in a way that is conducive to a healthy lifestyle.
A wearable tracker can help track your sleep while you rest. So, what are the benefits of Fitbit sleep tracking? And can a wearable tracker really make that much difference?
Here, we will explain how Fitbit tracks your sleep, and how to work with your device to improve your sleep schedule, and therefore your sleep health.
Why You Should Track Sleep
Most people spend more time asleep every day than any other singular activity. This makes healthy sleep one of, if not the most important factor in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
A good night’s sleep has been proven to help mental health, weight and hunger, and immune system recovery.
Tracking sleep is important in ensuring that your sleep health is where it should be. Your Fitbit can keep you aware of your sleep stages, how long you are spending asleep, and where improvements need to be made.
Your personal sleep data also help isolate issues you may not know are there, such as sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a fairly common sleep disorder related to breathing, and it can cost sleepers a heavy percentage of a night’s sleep.
Fitness trackers are designed to help you stay healthy, and sleep health is a big part of it. To have good sleep health, you need a sleep schedule, and to stay aware of how well you are sleeping.
Fitbit’s sleep tracking helps you do this, and the best news is, it takes no effort from you apart from wearing the device to sleep. So you can have a restful night’s sleep and wake up to advanced data to help you sleep ever better the next day.
Understanding How Fitbit Tracks Sleep
Sleep Stages
Fitbit uses a combination of your movements – tracked by movement sensors – and your heart rate variability (HRV) to estimate which stage of sleep you are in.
During an average night, you cycle through different sleep stages. There are three main stages of sleep: Light Sleep, Deep Sleep (NREM Sleep), and Rapid Eye Movement (REM Sleep).
Light Sleep and Deep Sleep cycles occur more frequently early in the night, with REM stages becoming longer later on in the sleep cycle.
The latter is associated with dreams, while NREM sleep involves less brain activity. These types of sleep alternate through the night and differ in length and regularity from person to person.
Most people will cycle between light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep every 90 minutes or so, although, as mentioned above, REM sleep stages can increase in length through the night.
Sleep patterns vary, and there is no guaranteed order, but light to deep to REM sleep is the most common order for the stages to move in.
Time Asleep
Your Fitbit will measure your Time Asleep to isolate how much time you actually spend asleep during the night.
From the second you fall asleep at night to the second you wake up in the morning, you may wake up several times in the night, which is not always easy to remember.
Your Fitbit will calculate your time asleep but subtracting the time you spent restless in the night, suggesting that you were awake.
For example, if you slept for eight hours, but you woke up two times, for 20 and 15 minutes respectively, your time asleep will be shown as 7 hr 25 min.
It is completely normal to wake up once or twice during the night, but the more often it happens, and the longer you are awake for, the worse it can be for your health.
This is why it is important for your Fitbit to track your time asleep.
How Accurate is Fitbit Sleep Tracking?
Our team has worn Fitbit devices to sleep to test out the accuracy of sleep tracking data. In a nutshell, it works most of the time with some inaccuracy especially for time awake.
Your Fitbit will track sleep by studying your movements and heart rate during sleep. When you don’t move for a long period of time, your tracker will assume that you are asleep. Small movements and behaviors that relate to sleep, such as rolling over, will be taking as clarification that you are asleep.
While this system is effective, it is not perfect, for example, if you are awake but not moving, the tracker may assume you are asleep. Results should, therefore, not be taken as gospel. Instead, your sleep results shown by the tracker should be used to give an idea of your sleep patterns.
As the Fitbit takes an hour to clarify that you are asleep, any naps you take that last less than an hour will not be tracked by the device.
While your sleep stats won’t be exact, they will be enough to get a decent read on your sleeping habits. It is safe to assume that if your Fitbit gets the results wrong, it will not be by much, so results can be used as a good indicator of your sleep patterns.
If you are worried your Fitbit is not tracking sleep correctly, try switching to Sensitive mode for more detailed readings.
Using Fitbit to Track Sleep
Which Fitbit is Best for Tracking Sleep?
The most modern device released by Fitbit, launched in conjunction with the tenth anniversary of their first tracker, the Fitbit Ionic is the first true smartwatch from Fitbit, and is excellent for tracking sleep.
Being new, it is not the cheapest option, coming in at a little over $250, but for precision sleep tracking, you’ll be challenged to find better.
A more classic tracker is the Fitbit Alta HR. It lacks the bells and whistles of the Ionic, but has a lower price tag, at around $100, and also offers precise sleep tracking.
Alta HR is the first Fitbit to use heart-rate monitoring, and demonstrated a real improvement in sleep tracking, helping track sleep stages and giving more specific and informative sleep stats.
Another great option is Fitbit Charge 3, which is a nice overall upgrade from Charge 2 with enhanced heart rate and sleep tracking. With a large LED display, you can see your sleep data right from your wrist.
Setting Sleep Goals
When it comes to sleep health, there is arguably nothing more important than consistency. Having a set time when you go to sleep and wake up every day sets a natural routine.
This makes waking up easier, and ensures that you feel at your most refreshed every morning.
The Fitbit helps with this by allowing you to set a sleep goal. When you set your goal in your sleep tracker, the app will suggest times to you for sleeping and waking up.
While these suggestions are scientifically calculated to help you meet your goal, it is also understood that they won’t work for everybody. You are, therefore, able to alter these times to suit your schedule if necessary.
Once your sleep time has been set, your Fitbit will send you a reminder to tell you when it’s time to start getting ready to sleep.
Winding down before sleep is essential, so your sleep tracker will give you enough notice to ensure you can start the process however you see fit.
It is advised to turn off electronic devices at this point, remove all screens, and instead engage in activities that aid in the sleep process.
This could be taking a bath, doing yoga, reading, or whatever else helps you get ready for sleep.
Also remember to turn notifications off on your Fitbit, either via the snooze or Do Not Disturb setting depending on which device you have.
Remember to wear your Fitbit to bed so it can track your sleep. The sleep tracker will inform you of whether your goals are being met, and the difference being made to your sleep patterns.
Sleep Tracking: Manual Vs Automatic
Automatic sleep tracking makes the world a lot easier for many. A device that automatically tracks sleep is undoubtedly a benefit.
However, there can be occasional issues with precision with automatic tracking. If you are concerned that your Fitbit is not tracking your sleep precisely enough, you can switch to manual mode.
Manual mode only adds one additional stat to the metrics, time to fall asleep, which can aid the precision of your readings.
This allows sleepers users who like to take naps to factor these into their sleep stats. All you need to do is activate sleep mode manually as soon as you lie down to nap.
There is a downside to using the manual mode full time, however, and that is having to remember to set it. You will have to press and hold the sleep tracker button for several seconds when you are ready to fall asleep.
Those likely to forget to do this, may benefit from the automatic setting, even if the stats are slightly less accurate.
How to Read Your Sleep Analysis Chart
To see your sleep analysis, sync your iOS or Android devices via Bluetooth in the Fitbit app. Once synced, you can access sleep data via the app dashboard. Newer Fitbit devices such as the Charge 3 has sleep data displayed right on the wrist tracker’s clock face, so you can glean sleep data at a quick glance.
Swiping left on the sleep tile will reveal your sleep patterns. This includes times spent in each sleep stage, and your sleep history for the past week. Fitbit’s new sleep feature, sleep insights, is particularly helpful with personalized tips for better sleep.
Your Fitbit will chart four stages, awake, light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep, based on your movements and heart rate. As mentioned above, the readings are not perfect but can provide you with a pretty consistent pattern of your sleep behavior.
As you tap to see the sleep details of the chosen day, you will see 3 tabs in the “Sleep Stages” section: Last night, 30-day average, and benchmark. The benchmark is taken from the average Fitbit user of the same gender and age, and allows you to see if your sleep data is within the typical range.
Final Thoughts
While you Fitbit can be very helpful with sleep tracking, it can’t do the work by itself. Once issues with your sleep patterns have been isolated, and you have set sleep goals and a daily sleep routine, it’s important to consider what you can do to help.
This may be as easy as cutting down on caffeinated drinks, or setting a time limit everyday or when you drink them, to ensure you are not drinking caffeine too close to sleeping.
Swiping left on the sleep tile will reveal your sleep patterns. This includes times spent in each sleep stage, and your sleep history for the past week. Fitbit’s new sleep feature, sleep insights, is particularly helpful with personalized tips for better sleep.
It can also help to turn any screens off a while before sleeping, instead option to read, or taking part in an activity that relaxes you.
Be sure to try different things, everyone is different, and the routine that works for others may not be right for you. Once you have found the routine that works for you, stick with it.
Working together with your sleep tracker, you can establish a sleep routine that does wonders for your sleep health, and in turn, for your general health.
