FitBit tracks sleep

I have been using my FitBit activity tracker for more than four months, and I have already extolled the benefits of the device in a previous blog, FitBit Obsession. Wearing it and tracking my progress has become second nature to me, and when and if I ever forget to clip it on I feel naked, as if I had forgotten a cell phone or my wallet. Recently, I decided a friend with some possible sleep problems should wear my FitBit to bed so it could track sleep time and awakefullness. While the FitBit can't and won't tell you what is causing insomnia or poor sleep habits and trends, it can track how often you are moving around. So, for someone who yawns all day long and is beat tired at six p.m. despite getting eight hours of sleep, the FitBit can confirm that there is trouble with the sandman as opposed to another medical condition that is draining energy.

However, I find the method of the sleep tracking to be misleading at times. For instance, I woke up one day and my iPhone app tells me that I had a 99% sleep rating because I fell asleep in two minutes and only woke up a couple of times. Well, I know this to be false because I remember being awake for quite a while before going under. The tracker monitors your movement, so because I lied completely still while waiting to catch my zzz's, the FitBit took my lack of movement to mean that I had already fallen asleep. It will also at times tell me I woke up X number of times, which I don't remember happening. I slept very well, but because I rolled over or moved my arm a couple times the FitBit thought I woke up.

Still, the sleep monitor and all of the graphs and trackers that come along with it is a very useful and interesting tool. I like to see the pictorials explaining just how bad of a night I had or how good. I like to try to better my sleep habits and I pay special attention to what I do differently before sleep and how it might be affecting my quality of shut-eye.