Does anyone else use Fitbit to track their sleep?

[NameChangeyMcChangerson]

Just curious to see what it shows you and whether it matches with how you feel! I have an 8 week old who had a crap night last night and I'd have said I got about two/three hours broken sleep and then a nice little lie-in from 7 to 8 while DH took the baby - but Fitbit says I got (albeit it very broken!) 7+ hours! All the other mums of babies I know say they get less than 5 hours - are we all getting a bit more than we think? Or do I actually have a better sleeper than I think and should stop moaning?!

Certainly for me it's mostly BS. It goes off heart rate I think, so can be "asleep" whilst reading, watching tv/movie etc. Mine normally thinks I'm asleep by 9ish because that's when I start vegging on the sofa!

Might work for some, but WAY off for me!

I track my sleep with fitbit. It's the opposite for me and always shows less sleep than I think I've had, which is annoying! I'll fall asleep at say midnight and wake at 7.30am and with the 'awake' times, the FB usually lobs an hour off. Has me focused on aiming for a minimum 7 hours a night....

Mines pretty accurate for sleep. I can tell when I've had at least an hour of deep and rem sleep without looking.
It's the heart rate I don't trust. Apparently my resting heart rate is 58 and I had it down to 47 the other day.
I appreciate I'm that laid back I'm horizontal but that's insane!

Interesting to see that different people find it different levels of accurate - I used to think it felt more or less right before I had DS, but as I say it now insists I'm getting much more than I think I am! I have a cosleeper cot so mostly don't have to stand up in the night, so I think it thinks I'm sleeping when I may be lying down but I'm very much awake...

I think those 7 hours do include those pink bits which are awake. That's what I thought anyway so it'll say 7 hours but 3 hours of that might be awake.
I do find it quite accurate for me it's got better recently with my newer Fitbit.

Mine is hopeless. I know I was awake last night between about 2am and 5am. But because I am very good at lying still and not thrashing so I don't disturb DH, it doesn't pick up movement or an increased heart rate, so it reckons I was asleep. Whereas, I was actually perusing MN between 3am and 4.30am having given up trying to sleep after an hour and then tried again 1.5 hours later.

I thought mine was pretty accurate, until I was up with night with a poorly DC for about 4 hours, and it had me down as having a deep sleep at that point. I can only assume it was because I was lying very still with him to settle him, but I haven’t felt I can rely on it since (not that I really feel the need to, I know when I’ve had a rubbish nights’ sleep, but I do find it interesting still).

I can SEE that mine reckons I'm asleep when I'm not. My resting heart rate is 50bpm so it just assumes I'm unconscious if I sit still.

Mine doesn't always count when I'm cosleeping with DD. I often know I have been asleep because I have been dreaming but it doesn't get logged.

Mine thinks I'm asleep if I'm sitting still watching TV or reading. I also don't toss & turn when I'm awake so it thinks I'm asleep longer than I actually am.

Mine says I'm asleep within minutes of going to bed, in reality I have to read for 2/3 hours to fall asleep.

I think those 7 hours do include those pink bits which are awake. That's what I thought anyway so it'll say 7 hours but 3 hours of that might be awake.

No, it's just the asleep time! It says I was awake for 122 minutes on top of that... I think it's conceivable I was sat up for two hours of the night, but I think I was feeding lying down for at least another two!

Mine’s pretty accurate I think. I always time check just before switching the light and it never records my reading as sleeping etc.

I get very little deep sleep as a rule, sometimes only 3 or 4 minutes and I definitely feel rubbish on those days regardless of how much overall I get. I have stopped drinking in September and the last few nights have noticed that I am dipping back into a second deep sleep phase later in the night, and I have definitely noticed that I feel more rested.

I can tell exactly when Ds has woken even if i sleep through it and Dh gets up.

I find it pretty accurate- you can tweak the settings though to increase the sensitivity

My average for the year is 6hr 50 min and I’d say that’s about right. I’d love 8 hours though, but the only way to get that is to go to bed earlier - I never sleep in!

I used to. It was so depressing so gave up.

I have an Alta and I used to think it tracked my sleep quite accurately, but it seems to have been on the fritz recently. Sometimes marks me as asleep when I was not only awake, but moving around! Weird. As I used to find it accurate, I am wondering if there's some kind of firmware issue atm.

I have a cheapo version and it was wildly out. I would be up multiple times either at the loo or tending to the baby and it would still have me as a restful 7 hours. The only way I could get it to pick up wakefulness was to swing my arms wildly around so I would have one random few minutes of activity in amongst sleep

It doesn’t work at all.

Mine has me in the light sleep phase about three hours before I actually manage to sleep!

Mine is accurate on the bits where I'm up and about with DD in the middle of the night. If I'm awake and lying still it thinks I'm asleep. So I could have been staring at the clock, wide awake and be wrecked in the morning and my fitbit merrily tells me that I got 8 hours.

I have a flex 2 and it's depressingly accurate. I only get around 4 and a half hours of broken sleep due to insomnia.

Over the weekend I was I was poorly and slept deeply, the fit bit recorded me as sleeping for 7 and a half hours. I felt reborn after that much sleep despite a dodgy tummy.

My sleep last night. It’s very accurate for me!

Very little of your sleep in that picture is deep sleep, mainly being REM or light, so as your body isn't managing to go through a full sleep pattern and into deep sleep you won't wake up as refreshed as if you say had a shorter time of 'real' sleep when you go through an entire sleep cycle.
As they work them out from your heart rate and movement levels if you are lying/sitting still feeding for a long period, then it will probably assume you are in light sleep even when you aren't. I get similar watching the television sometimes in the evening.

Mine is very accurate.

Unfortunately I suffer with insomnia. I am getting on average 4.5 hours per night.

Although last night I slept for 5 hours 22 minutes, nearly an hour more than usual, I immediately knew I had not slept well because I felt really tired when I woke
Only had 38 mins deep sleep.

I slept a couple of weeks ago for 8hours 42mins and had over 2 hours deep sleep and I felt fantastic. I could have taken on the world.
I take 6mg of Melatonin per night in order to get the 4.5 hours. If I don't take a pill I am lucky to get 2.5 hours.
Think I was at one stage before I started taking Melatonin I would regularly be on 1 hour 20minutes.

Most of the time I am like a zombie but if I have 1.5 hours deep sleep I am ok during the day.

Kept an eye on the time last night and it definitely thinks lying down feeding is light sleep!

I do think, though, that I never realised the difference between broken and continuous sleep before having him. I used to only get five hours on my 'long commute' days (three days a week) as I had to get up at 4.45 and I still felt much better than I do now (even when really pregnant!), because that 5 hours was at least in one solid block. Since I'm now going to bed at 10 and not getting up until 8 I guess I may be getting more sleep, but it's rubbish sleep!

And for those not getting enough sleep - some of you are getting so little and must feel so exhausted!

The old saying ‘an hour before midnight is worth 2 after’ really applies to me. I sometimes have weeks where I force myself to go to bed at 9, read and then go to sleep, and after 3 days I feel so rested. I am a very early riser so never lie in even though I could.

In response to a poster above- I have never had more than 1 hour deep sleep! Even now I’m getting it later in the night it’s not hitting the 60 minute mark. I don’t know what to do to improve it; maybe eye mask and earplugs? Last night I had three little dips into deep sleep totalling 55 mins- but I feel so much more refreshed today.