Fitness trackers are all the rage these days. They can virtually bring your life to your wrist with ease. Fitbit is one of the most famous brand when it comes to devices that monitor your health and general wellbeing. Many fitness trackers are only limited to counting steps and number of calories burned. However with Fitbit, you can also track your sleep pattern.
The ability of Fitbit to track sleep patterns come from its sensors called accelerometers. They detect body movements, its speed and direction. When the wearer is immobile for sometimes, the algorithm assumes that they are asleep. This is also augmented by the kind of movements you make while you are sleeping, for example rolling over etc.
Fitbit has a range of ten products in 10 products in totality, depending on the model you have sleep tracking will vary. Some models track sleep simultaneously and others need to be set up manually. If you want to decide which one would work for you, read ahead.
Manual sleep tracking (One)
If you have Fitbit One you can track your sleep by putting your device in sleep mode. To activate, hold the button on the tracker for several seconds. A stopwatch begins to count and the rest of the icons start to blink, this means your device is in sleep mode. When you wake up, press the button for 2 seconds to exit sleep mode.
Automatic Sleep Tracking (Alta, Blaze, Charge series, Flex series, Surge)
The above mentioned models track sleep automatically. This means you can simply wear your watch to bed without having to activate it to a sleep mode. You can still put it on sleep mode manually as it offers to monitor to an additional stat (time to sleep). Usually, the results of manual or automatic are usually same.
The device estimates your sleep time by your levels inactivity throughout the night, Models with in built heart sensors also factors your heart rate to assess when you have fallen asleep. You can view sleep pattern on your account dashboard when Fitbit syncs in the morning.
Even though fit bit is an excellent fitness tracker, it has its limitations when it comes to sleep tracking. The results can sometimes not be accurate. The device cant track naps lesser than an hour, since that’s the default period that will activate automated sleep tracking. It is also incapable of measuring sleep cycles or REM sleep.
You can put your device on a “sensitive” mode and it will track ALL movements throughout the night instead of measuring just the major movements like in “normal” mode. You can also put “silent alarms” on your Fitbit so it wakes you up at a set. Silent alarms are probably not a good idea for deep sleepers as it wakes you up through a series of vibrations. Fitbit also allows you to set up a sleep schedule and have “sleep goals”. This new feature is available on all Fitbit devices that can track sleep.
