The Fitbit
I bought a couple of years ago is supposed to keep track of my sleep, as well
as my steps. However, it has never worked properly. And it’s not just this one
Fitbit. The first one I had was lost, and the second and third ones just
stopped worked after several months. Not one of them has recorded the sleep
that I know I’ve had or haven’t had. In other words, when I have actually been
awake for an hour or more in the middle of the night, Fitbit thinks I was
asleep, while it often shows gaps of one or two or more hours when I am pretty
sure I was asleep.
Here’s how
off it can be. Last night I got into bed around 11:40, read for a while, and
turned off the light just after midnight. Woke briefly just before 1 a.m.,
again at 3 a.m., and woke up for good at 8:45. Fitbit thinks I lay down at
11:24 p.m., shows a period of wakefulness for a while, then thinks I was up and
about between 1:10 and 3:09 a.m. I feel like the device is gaslighting me.
My doctor
last week recommended another app, for my phone, called Sleep Cycle, and it
looks much more accurate, showing me asleep between 1 and 3 a.m., including at
least one period of deep sleep just before waking at 3, and then going back to
sleep.
Do you use
any of these apps for monitoring steps and/or sleep? What’s your experience
with them?
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I’m
participating in the 12th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two
Writing Teachers. This is day 1 of the 31-day
challenge. It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a
community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to
slice about. Join in!
