AIBU to think that my Fitbit is trying to tell me something?

[Seren10]

I've been wearing my new FitBit for the last two weeks since starting my post-holiday fitness kick. My best friend has just bought one too and we have been comparing stats.

What is worrying me is that my FitBit says I'm only getting approximately 2.5 hours sleep per night. Now as far as I am aware, this cannot possibly be correct! I have always felt like I have slept relatively well. I go to bed at 10pm and my alarm goes off at 7am.

I don't have any trouble getting to sleep, I have no memory of waking/tossing/turning in the night. My partner often leaves around 6am whereas I don't need to be up until 7am, he wakes me to say goodbye and I fall straight back to sleep for an hour. When my alarm goes off, I don't feel particularly shattered or unable to get up etc, just a little sleepy?

Speaking to my friend, her FitBit registers her as getting 7-8hours sleep. So we swapped FitBits incase it was a glitch with mine, but lo and behold, mine still reads 2-3hours. Tried tightening it, wearing it on the other wrist, but no change.

Now, after reading this article:

If I wake up for say, 5-10mins in the night (ie when husband comes to bed or a child coughs) then the Fitbit assumes I’m up for the day and I get readings like this:

That’s means to be a full stop!

Well you won't. We all wake up during the night, it's a throwback from eons to check we're still safe sleeping. That app is recording you as waking up a lot though even if you aren't aware of it. You might be so used to feeling the same way when awake you might not know any different.

Is your date and time set properly OP? Timezone etc?

I'm not an expert but I think you if you log into FitBit.com on your PC and let it sync there before you delete the app then your info should be retained.

I have restarted my FitBit inline with this:

help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1186/?q=restart+your+tracker&l=en_US&fs=Search&pn=1

Hoping this may fix it?

@MRex where can I find that info?

I would have thought your partner would notice if you do move a fair bit. Fitbit actually sent me this article today, might be worth a read?

blog.fitbit.com/sleep-stages-explained/

Click through on your heart rate from the main page, it should bring up a chart.

@MRex

I don't have that option? It doesn't say heartrate anywhere?

Says my stepcount, then how many km I have covered, how many calories I have burned and then how many active minutes..

Underneath that is exercise, sleep, weight, period, etc etc

You need to change the sensitivity settings.
Go to the fitbit website and click on settings. That should solve the problem.

Which type do you have? Maybe you need to turn it on in the settings? It can't do calories without heart rate.

Do you have a cross in a circle at the bottom of the page? That's where you can add elements to your home screen. I have heart rate plus active hours, sleep & weekly exercise.

Can I ask are you overweight op?

It is a FitBit Flex 2.

I can't find anything to do with heart rate so perhaps this is the problem? But then again, if it doesn't measure heart rate, how does it measure sleep at all? I am unsure which model my friends is, hers has a screen so is different, I have messaged to ask.

No not overweight, I am 10 stone and 5'7.

If you feel fine ignore it. Dont waste nhs time with unreliable gadgets

This is what my app screen looks like. Is yours similar? Have you tried cleanign the contacts on the back? I know my DD sometimes faults becuase of that.

@DaisyChainsGetBroken

I'd rather not just ignore it, if it works for everyone else and if it could be suggesting that I have an underlying issue.

I'm not suggesting I rock up at A&E, and other replies suggest a glitch with the gadget rather than myself which is obviously the better outcome, but I would rather get it sorted seeing as they are expensive and do seem to work for everyone else.

@WhatHaveIFound This is my home screen!

The flex 2 doesn’t measure heart rate 🙂 mine accurately measures sleep.

You can try uninstalling and reinstalling it and also a factory reset or hard reset which should help. If not contact Fitbit as their customer service is excellent

See if you hadn't mentioned that you had swapped fitbits with your friend you could easily say it could be the Fitbit. The fact you got the same on hers could point to an issue with you.

I've genuinely never understood the need for the sleep monitoring thing. I have the very basic Fitbit that doesn't offer this and I'm fine with that, because I can tell whether I've slept well or not without needing a machine to tell me.

I think it depends. The sleep tool has been amazing for me, it was there in black (or blue!) and white how little sleep I was really getting. It woke me up (pun intended) to the fact that I may be in bed for 7 hours but I wasn't getting anywhere near that amount of sleep. And with having young children being continually tired soon becomes the norm!

You need to change the sensitivity. I've got the flex 2.

No not overweight, I am 10 stone and 5'7.

Ah, definitely not overweight! Probably not sleep apnoea then!

I agree with the pp - you need to change the sensitivity settings. My sister had this and I was convinced she must have sleep apnea but after changing the sensitivity it looks perfectly normal