Tech Time::: Fitbit One -- Part 3

The feature that sold me on the Fitbit One was the sleep monitoring.  I liked that you would be able to sync to device and see your sleep pattern from each night on your Fitbit Dashboard and over time you'd be able to keep track of patterns and if you're having issues perhaps adjust your bedtimes, daily activities, eating habits, etc.  Being that I do not sleep much, and never feel rested, I had high hopes for this particular feature. 

Because of my hopes, I am a little mixed on it.  That's mostly my fault, my husband always says "if you don't go in with any expectations, you won't be disappointed when something doesn't meet them."  Someday, probably on my death bed, I'll actually get there.

I have done two different sleep studies, and neither has given me any real data as to why I cannot sleep, or how to fix that.  I went in thinking I would get some of the answers, and walked away more confused than ever, and just as exhausted with glue in my hair. 

When I got this device, the very first thing I did was figure out the sleep monitor feature. I had to do some research to figure out that you have to hold the button down for a couple seconds until the timer comes on, which looks like a stopwatch screen. While the sleep timing is going, all of the screens flash. That's how you know it's going. You don't want to turn that on until you are literally going to crash out for the night or it will show in your sleep records the next day.  To turn it back off, you do exactly the same thing, hold the button down and it will stop flashing.  

Sexy.

Here's a little review from Tesa about setting up the sleep tracking, and some of her input on the sleep tracking feature.

My experiences have been maybe a little less glowingly positive with this feature, and again, my fault for having any expectations about it.   I also don't know if she's gotten into the sensitive tracker.  But if so, and she still sleeps like a rock, not fair. 

After my first night with it, I let it sync (which happens automatically, by the way, as long as you're near the dongle and it's connected to your computer or have your bluetooth turned on and the app running on your phone), and went into my dashboard.  I clicked on the sleep records which said I slept 9 hours and 20 minutes, with an actual sleep time of 8 hours and 6 minutes, being awakened 18 times with a 93% sleep efficiency. Each little pink block is awake/restlessness, and the aqua is supposed to represent sleep. 

So here's the screen for a night using regular tracking (not the first night, just a random night):

Then I noticed a little "edit" button (notepad and pen) next to the "delete" button (X) neither of which appears to show in my screen shots...and clicked it.  Inside there is a "use sensitive tracker" button, which I clicked.  Suddenly my actual sleep time is way down to 4 hours and 27 minutes, 55% sleep efficiency and 12 times awakened. That is more along the lines of normal and more in line with accurate for how I tend to feel.  Again, these images are not the same night as my first night, these are current records as you can see by the 30 day stats. 

And here's the same night as shown above that gave me a 97% Sleep Efficiency when using the Sensitive Tracker:::

Now, I see that it claims I fell asleep in 8 minutes and I know that's a lie right there on my internets. I haven't fallen asleep in under a half hour since I was a wee small infant or put under for surgery.

As much as I would like to believe I actually got a full night of glorious sleep any of these nights it's said I have, I can feel that I did not.  I eventually did go into settings and set it to stay on Sensitive Tracker, since that's a more accurate portrait of my sleep.  I think if you know you sleep poorly, that might be something to pay attention to.  I do wish there was a way for the device to know the stages of sleep you're in, how long, and how often, but perhaps that will come in later devices. 

Here's how to make it stick to sensitive tracking, down towards the bottom:::

Another feature that was immensely appealing to me was the silent alarm. My husband sleeps fine, but is generally a light sleeper, so he was probably more excited about this possibly working out well than I was.  When my alarm goes off, that disrupts him, and we work different schedules, and sleep different schedules, so we try very hard to not screw up the sleep patterns.  So far this silent alarm feature has worked really well.  As I said, am not a great sleeper, so I am often already awake when it goes off.  But when I actually am asleep, I can sleep through fire alarms and my actual alarm clock on full blast, so for this to wake me up from that is impressive. 

Here's how to set one:::

Being the control freak that I am, I do still have a backup alarm set up just in case I didn't check battery life before I went to bed and it dies over night, or if I lose it in bed, like the one night I somehow managed to get the device out of the sleep band and it went MIA in the bed.  Thankfully due to the vibration it was easily found.  I find the vibration satisfyingly bold. It's not painful or ridiculous, but it didn't go unnoticed by any means. It's actually stronger than my iPhone vibration. Maybe Apple needs to borrow the Fitbit vibration assembly! 

Next week in the final installment, I will cover linking it with My Fitness Pal, and the Fitbit app.  

If you use the Fitbit One, or any Fitbit, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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