Gina Johnson
Sleep is an essential component of health, and its timing, duration, and quality are critical determinants of a person's overall health, playing a role in metabolic and emotional regulation, performance, and memory. Fitbit offers a range of tools to help you understand your sleep patterns and improve your sleep quality. By wearing a Fitbit device to bed, you can track your sleep cycles, including the amount of time spent in deep sleep. This is achieved through the device's ability to detect movement and heart rate patterns, allowing it to estimate the different stages of sleep, from light sleep to deep sleep and REM sleep. Fitbit's sleep-tracking feature provides insights into your sleep habits and can help you recognize when you need to prioritize rest.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| How it tracks deep sleep | By using your movement and heart-rate patterns |
| How it knows you're asleep | When you don't move for about an hour |
| How it knows you're awake | When you move in ways that wouldn't be possible if you were asleep |
| How it knows you're in deep sleep | By tracking beat-to-beat changes in your heart rate, known as heart rate variability (HRV) |
| How it knows you're in REM sleep | REM sleep usually occurs after the initial stage of deep sleep and is when your brain is more active, your heart rate increases, your breathing becomes irregular, and your eyes move quickly |
| How it knows you're in light sleep | Light sleep is the entry point into sleep each night as your body unwinds and slows down |
| How it records sleep | It records sleep of an hour or longer |
| How it records sleep patterns | It records the time spent awake, restless, and asleep |
| How it records sleep stages | It uses an accelerometer (an instrument for measuring bodily accelerations of the wrist) coupled with a technique called optical photoplethysmography, or PPG, which measures blood flow based on how green light from an LED on the back of the watch is reflected by the body |
| Accuracy | Fitbit's sleep staging is only correct in 30-second blocks slightly more than two-thirds of the time |
| Fitbit Premium | Offers guided programs developed with sleep experts, including "Habits for Restful Sleep" and "Get More Sleep" |
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What You'll Learn
- Fitbit devices with heart rate monitors can track deep sleep
- Fitbit sleep score is based on heart rate, time spent awake and sleep stages
- Fitbit Premium offers guided programs to help achieve deeper sleep
- Fitbit devices can track sleep in normal or sensitive mode
- Fitbit devices can detect sleep through movement
Fitbit devices with heart rate monitors can track deep sleep
Sleep is an essential component of health, and its timing, duration, and quality are critical determinants of a person's overall health. Fitbit devices can help you track your sleep and monitor your sleep patterns.
The Fitbit Versa, for example, infers when you're sleeping and what stage of sleep you're in using an accelerometer (a device for measuring bodily accelerations of the wrist) coupled with a technique called optical photoplethysmography, or PPG. PPG measures blood flow based on how green light from an LED on the back of the watch is reflected by the body. Essentially, the Fitbit examines your movements and heart rate to determine whether you're awake, in a deep sleep, a light slumber, or dreaming.
Fitbit's sleep feature estimates sleep stages using a combination of movement and heart rate patterns. When you haven't moved for about an hour, your Fitbit tracker or smartwatch assumes that you're asleep. Additional data, such as the length of time of movements that indicate sleep behaviour (such as rolling over), can also help confirm that you're asleep.
If your Fitbit device has a heart rate monitor, which all but the oldest Fitbits do, you will receive a sleep score. This score considers various factors, such as the amount of movement during the night and the amount of deep sleep, to give you a number up to 100. A higher score indicates better sleep quality.
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Fitbit sleep score is based on heart rate, time spent awake and sleep stages
Fitbit devices can track sleep patterns and sleep stages. Sleep stages refer to the different phases of sleep, including light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep. While asleep, the body typically goes through several sleep cycles that last around 90 minutes on average. Each cycle alternates between light sleep and deep sleep, with the former serving as the entry point into sleep each night as the body unwinds and slows down. Deep sleep usually occurs at the beginning of the night, with REM sleep occurring in the second half of the night. During REM sleep, the brain becomes more active, and dreams mostly occur.
Fitbit devices track sleep by monitoring beat-to-beat changes in heart rate, known as heart rate variability (HRV), which fluctuate as the wearer transitions between sleep stages. They also use movement patterns to determine sleep stages. When the device hasn't detected movement for about an hour, it assumes the wearer is asleep. Additional data, such as the length of movements indicative of sleep behaviour, like rolling over, help confirm the wearer's sleep status.
The Fitbit Sleep Score is a feature that provides a detailed analysis of a user's sleep patterns. It is calculated based on three components: sleep duration, sleep quality, and restoration, with a maximum score of 100. The score is influenced by the time spent in each sleep stage, as well as heart rate and the time spent awake or restless. The sleep score can be accessed through the Sleep Score tile in the Fitbit app.
To improve the accuracy of sleep tracking, it is recommended to wear the Fitbit device higher on the wrist, ensuring a snug but comfortable fit. Additionally, wearing the device to bed is essential for receiving a sleep score, as it relies on data collected during sleep.
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Fitbit Premium offers guided programs to help achieve deeper sleep
Fitbit devices track your sleep by using your movement and heart-rate patterns. When you haven't moved for about an hour, your tracker or watch assumes that you're asleep. It also tracks the beat-to-beat changes in your heart rate, known as heart rate variability (HRV), which fluctuate as you transition between light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep stages.
Fitbit Premium offers guided programs developed with sleep experts to help you achieve deeper sleep. These include "Habits for Restful Sleep", which helps you build better daytime habits to improve your sleep at night. Another program is "Get More Sleep", which helps you improve your nighttime routine and work towards longer sleep with goals and relaxation tools. Fitbit's breathing exercise, for example, shows you a circle graphic that grows and shrinks to help you focus on slow, calming inhales and exhales. There are also guided meditations available in the app, such as "A meditation to quickly fall asleep", which features a soothing talk about relaxing into sleep. Sleep stories like "Grassy Meadow Stroll Visualization" can also help you drift off.
In addition to these guided programs, Fitbit offers several other tools to help you sleep better. You can set a sleep schedule in the Fitbit app to maintain a more consistent sleep pattern. You can also explore your sleep habits through sleep insights and set a bedtime reminder in the app to help you wind down each night. When you set an alarm on Fitbit devices that support Smart Wake, you can turn on this feature to avoid waking up while you're in deep sleep. Smart Wake attempts to find the best time to wake you, starting 30 minutes before your set alarm.
Fitbit's Sleep Profile is available for Fitbit Premium members with Google Pixel Watch, Sense 2, Sense, Versa 4, Versa 3, Versa 2, Charge 5, Luxe, Inspire 2 or Inspire 3 devices. It provides a detailed sleep breakdown that is available on the first of every month. It also assigns you a "sleep animal" to describe your rest-related habits.
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Fitbit devices can track sleep in normal or sensitive mode
The normal mode is the default setting. When you make significant movements, such as rolling over, the device records that time as being awake. This setting is appropriate for most users.
The sensitive mode is a more precise setting. It records nearly all movements as time spent restless or awake. This setting may be helpful if you wake up feeling tired even though your sleep history shows sufficient rest.
In addition to movement, Fitbit devices also track sleep by monitoring the beat-to-beat changes in your heart rate, known as heart rate variability (HRV). These numbers fluctuate as you transition between light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep stages. When you sync your device in the morning, it uses your movement and heart rate patterns to estimate your sleep cycles from the previous night.
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Fitbit devices can detect sleep through movement
Wrist-based Fitbit devices and Google Pixel Watch series can automatically detect your sleep when you wear your device to bed. It is recommended that you wear your device in a snug wristband during sleep. Do not wear your device in a clip or pendant accessory.
If your Fitbit device doesn't track heart rate, you can check your sleep pattern in the Fitbit app. Your sleep pattern includes your time spent awake, restless, and asleep. Restless sleep indicates that you move in your sleep, like tossing and turning. If your device detects excessive movement, enough that restful sleep won't be possible, your device records time spent awake.
Fitbit devices that track heart rate (except Charge HR and Surge) also track sleep stages. Fitbit trackers and watches use your sleeping heart rate, movement and more to measure your time spent in each sleep stage and give you a personalised Sleep Score that shows how well you slept.
The Smart Wake feature monitors your sleep stages and wakes you during a Light Sleep stage, in a window of up to 30 minutes leading to the time you've set for the alarm.
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Frequently asked questions
Wear your Fitbit device during sleep. Fitbit devices and the Google Pixel Watch series automatically detect your sleep when you wear your device to bed. You can also set a sleep schedule in the Fitbit app to maintain a more consistent sleep pattern.
Fitbit estimates your sleep stages by using your movement and heart-rate patterns. When you don't move for about an hour, your tracker or watch assumes you're asleep. Additional data such as the length of time when your movements indicate sleep behavior (like rolling over) help confirm your sleep status.
Open the Fitbit app and from the Today tab, tap the Sleep duration tile. Tap Sleeping heart rate to find stats for your most recent sleep session. To check sleep stats for other days, choose the desired week, month, or year using the tabs. Tap on a specific sleep session to check your sleeping heart rate for that period.
