Fitbit Sleep Tracking System Initial Thoughts After One Month
So it has been about a month now since I purchased the Fitbit Charge HR black wristband activity tracker. I pretty much bought it because of the sleep tracking feature.
All my life I have had difficulty sleeping and I thought maybe there is a pattern maybe I wake up at the same time each night at 01:53. If this is the case I can then deal with whatever is happening at 01:53 and finally solve this sleep issue once and for all
First Nights Sleep
I could barely sleep, I was tossing and turning probably three trips to the bathroom. I feel so tired.
Lets see what the Fitbit says.
Over 6 hours of sleep! this can not be right. After some digging around in the setting I find out it has a sensitivity switch under https://www.fitbit.com/settings/device
Instantly it drops from over 6 hours to about 2.5 hours. That’s more like it.
Fitbit Charge HR
I use the Fitbit Charge HR to track my sleep but the following can also automatically detect your sleep The Force, Charge, and Surge.
How Is Sleep Efficiency Calculated?
Fitbit uses this equation to calculate your sleep efficiency:
100 * time asleep / (time asleep + time restless + time awoken during sleep)
Actually falling asleep time is not incorporated into the calculation.
This means that if you don’t move all night you will get a 100% sleep efficiency even if it takes you 20 minutes to fall asleep.
Web Interface
The web interface is a bit too basic for my liking. They do offer an upgrade for the cost of $60 per year which may offer finer grade details.
Device Interface
The tracker itself has only one button. Pressing it once scroll through a number of information screens like, time, heart rate, steps, distance, Alarm time. You can re order and even omit any of these via the fitbit website.
Pressing and holding the button puts the device into exercise mode and it starts tracking your walk/run etc
It is not waterproof this is a real disappointment, as you will need to take it of when you have a shower.
Fitbit claims the battery is good for up to 5 days, in my experience I find it closer to four. I am surprised it lasts this long as there is a constant green pulsing light being emitted to measure your heart rate
Alarm Feature
The Charge HR does have an alarm feature but it is fairly limited and restricted.
You need to set the alarm via the fitbit website and then sync it via your computer before the alarm will work.
Exporting the Sleep Data:
The data can easily be exported via the website https://www.fitbit.com/export/user/data
Fitbit says
“Your data belongs to you!”
Download your Fitbit data as an XLS file (Microsoft Excel) or CSV, which can be opened by many paid, free or shareware applications.”
So it seem my data belongs to me, but only the most basic.
Below is the CSV export of my sleep data over the past month.
The export clearly omits a lot of the more detailed data it collects like the actual time you are awoken. It only exports the totals not the fine grain details I would have liked to play with
CSV Export Example
Sleep
Date,Minutes Asleep,Minutes Awake,Number of Awakenings,Time in Bed
“01-02-2015″,”0″,”0″,”0″,”0”
“02-02-2015″,”0″,”0″,”0″,”0”
“03-02-2015″,”0″,”0″,”0″,”0”
“04-02-2015″,”0″,”0″,”0″,”0”
“05-02-2015″,”0″,”0″,”0″,”0”
“06-02-2015″,”0″,”0″,”0″,”0”
“07-02-2015″,”267″,”225″,”19″,”503”
“08-02-2015″,”179″,”267″,”21″,”523”
“09-02-2015″,”146″,”169″,”12″,”464”
“10-02-2015″,”258″,”213″,”17″,”510”
“11-02-2015″,”187″,”186″,”14″,”419”
“12-02-2015″,”241″,”174″,”13″,”442”
“13-02-2015″,”282″,”263″,”20″,”579”
“14-02-2015″,”334″,”200″,”15″,”548”
“15-02-2015″,”208″,”373″,”17″,”606”
“16-02-2015″,”350″,”134″,”13″,”511”
“17-02-2015″,”121″,”70″,”8″,”232”
“18-02-2015″,”263″,”112″,”10″,”406”
“19-02-2015″,”332″,”211″,”14″,”570”
“20-02-2015″,”207″,”151″,”13″,”371”
“21-02-2015″,”254″,”230″,”13″,”520”
“22-02-2015″,”299″,”191″,”13″,”542”
“23-02-2015″,”192″,”210″,”11″,”431”
“24-02-2015″,”0″,”0″,”0″,”0”
“25-02-2015″,”0″,”0″,”0″,”0”
“26-02-2015″,”284″,”166″,”10″,”576”
“27-02-2015″,”226″,”195″,”12″,”444”
“28-02-2015″,”316″,”29″,”2″,”485”
Summary:
As I said before they do offer a premium service for $60 per year, once I have 3-6 Months of data collected I may choose to look into this. It is however disappointing just how basic the export of data is.
