Most modern Fitbit wearable devices are capable of estimating sleep stages, measuring sleep efficiency, and delivering a numerical score meant to gauge your sleep health. The Fitbit Sleep Score is based on a sum of individual scores in three areas: sleep duration, sleep quality, and restoration.
According to Fitbit, most users get a sleep score that falls between 72 and 83 (out of 100). An “excellent” score falls between 90 to 100 while a “poor score” ranks at 60 points or lower.
The overall point of the sleep score is to generally assess how well you’re sleeping, pinpoint potential insomnia symptoms, and identify what things disrupt your sleep cycles.
Throughout the night, your sleep consists of several rounds of the sleep cycle. Most people go through four to six sleep cycles per night.
The sleep cycle is made up of the following components:
Experts still aren’t entirely sure which specific purposes sleep stages serve. In other words, we don’t know why sleep is essential, but based on brain activity, we can see that it is. There are no artificial means that can replace sleep’s impact on the brain.
Currently, it’s believed that sleep is responsible for:
Fitbit devices are adept at measuring sleep stages thanks to their ability to track heart rate and movement patterns. These two factors help wearable sleep-tracking devices guess when you’re asleep and track your progression through the different stages of sleep.
In this way, Fitbits can act as a sort of “at-home sleep lab,” measuring how your heart and body respond to changes in your brain.
Because your heart rate drops during deeper sleep stages, sleep-tracking devices use this metric to guess when you’re experiencing them. Based on the time your heart rate spends at a certain level, devices can then predict when you enter REM sleep.
Once you fall asleep, movement tends to decline. By the time you reach REM and deep sleep stages, your movement usually ceases almost entirely. The more you toss and turn, the more likely you are to be in lighter stages of sleep. Using movement tracking helps devices guess sleep onset times and track how long you spend in each sleep stage.
Wearable sleep tracking devices guess house sleep data to w long you spend in each stage on average and determine whether you reach deep and REM sleep.
A systematic review of several research studies shows that Fitbit models tracking heart rate and movement deliver pretty accurate results. If anything, they tend to overestimate sleep time and sleep efficiency and may not always detect when you wake up from sleep.
However, you can mitigate these misreadings by using the device properly and keeping them in mind. Fitbits designed to track sleep usually perform better than other models, so choosing an appropriate device can also help.
Fitbits go about tracking sleep stages by keeping an eye on changes in your heart rate and movement, but also by measuring how long you experience certain patterns. For example, an hour-long period of no movement likely suggests deeper sleep, especially if the heart rate continues to drop during this time.
To accurately measure sleep habits, take care to ensure that your Fitbit is set up correctly. Following the steps below will help you avoid false readings that skew your results.
Ensure your fitness tracker is on properly to measure your heart rate, movement, etc., without interference. Most devices have small readers meant to align with pulse points about an inch or so above your wrist. Check your model’s instructions to learn more.
Assessing sleep is most accurate when software is updated with the newest features and bug fixes. Keep firmware up-to-date to minimize glitches or mistakes.
Sleep trackers look for patterns and consistency, so you can help yourself get more accurate results by being consistent yourself. Try to go to sleep and wake up around the same time each day to eliminate the influence of outside factors and promote more regular sleep in general.
Achieve deeper, more healing sleep, and enjoy your time in bed with minimal stress by supporting your brain when it’s awake and when it’s time to rest.
ZeroIn by The Root Brands features our brain-boosting proprietary blend and other natural ingredients designed to support cognitive function and energy levels throughout the day. By maximizing your mind’s performance while awake, you can help limit the number of factors that interfere with sleep at night.
Nootropics like ZeroIn are a non-stress hormone-inducing option to increase productivity and sleep quality. With the help of Fitbit sleep scores, you can track your sleep to find the best dosage for your mind. You can also couple sleep scores with our detox nootropics to measure changes in your brain and determine when it’s time to detox again.
Supporting brain health from the inside out may be the best way to see long-term results. Make the most of your sleep data by transforming it into actionable change with ZeroIn and other Root Brands wellness options.