Fitbit flex?

Is Sleep Time good at figuring out that you are asleep? Does it have an EASY way to tell it your are awake or trying to go back to sleep?

Just a REALLY EASY logging function would solve 80% of the problem. (Wouldn't cover when we are quiet trying to fall asleep but taking a sizable time to do so.)

HerbM wrote:Is Sleep Time good at figuring out that you are asleep? Does it have an EASY way to tell it your are awake or trying to go back to sleep?

Just a REALLY EASY logging function would solve 80% of the problem. (Wouldn't cover when we are quiet trying to fall asleep but taking a sizable time to do so.)

its algorythims are great. just give it a try they have a free version

I also have a great interest in this subject. Thanks to cpap therapy I have been able to remember(!) most wakeups an,mentally noting and actually remembering in the morning. I check the time on my phone(set to low bright at night) or husbands low light alarm. I wonder if there is an app to tally wakeups with an easy click? Last night I notice a lot of action when listening to an audiobook for a bit at bed time, snores registering when I know I was coughed etc. I am hoping to find a way to measure actual sleep and record wakeups. I am doing very well with cpap, mostly only RERAs but literally a hundred+ less now than in sleep test, even when high. Even better when I subtract incidents when for sure awake. The more I have learned the better cpap seems to work. Knowledge really is power. Thanks to all who have patiently helped me, three month anniversary on Feb. 25th.

Ruinednose wrote:

HerbM wrote:Is Sleep Time good at figuring out that you are asleep? Does it have an EASY way to tell it your are awake or trying to go back to sleep?

Just a REALLY EASY logging function would solve 80% of the problem. (Wouldn't cover when we are quiet trying to fall asleep but taking a sizable time to do so.)

its algorythims are great. just give it a try they have a free version

I went to get it and there are 4 or more apps with the name Sleep Time -- can you tell me the company name or what the ICON looks like, Azumio, Abduf Wahla, AllFive, TUSoft.

Evidently, these are really and straightforward to use with the sleep function
http://reviewshot.com/fitbit-flex-revie ... -patterns/

Apparently all you have to do to tell the device your sleeping is tap it twice quickly.

I've been using the Beddit sleep tracker for a couple of weeks:

http://www.beddit.com/

It's a strip that sticks to your mattress or mattress pad and talks to your smartphone with Bluetooth. You lie on top of it and it detects your movements.

In my short time with it it's proven to be a good heart rate monitor (my heart rate goes up predictably after a night of drinking), and a decent tool to measure restlessness.

If I get out of bed, it knows, and accurately records the time I'm up.

It also records periods of "wakefulness" that could be movement while asleep or actual awakenings. It can't tell the difference.

That said I'm finding that it is giving me a better sense of how much sleep I'm getting. After subtracting the time it takes to fall asleep and any arousals it detects, it turns out I get between 5.5 - 6.5 hours a night. Before the Beddit I would've said I get between 6 - 9 hours.

Interestingly, the data from the Beddit and my CPAP have aligned a few times. For example, the Beddit recorded an hour of restlessness that lined up precisely with an hour of weird respiratory events. I don't know what was happening there, but the fact both devices detected something gives me more confidence in both.

The company says they'll be adding functionality through the year, including the ability to export Excel files with more detailed data, but at this point I can't recommend it. It's a neat gadget, but doesn't provide the kind of detail and accuracy most of you would be expecting.

The use of an accelerometer/motion detector to detect sleep phases is still fairly unreliable.
The sleep lab I went to had a dynamometer sensor on my face to detect REM.
That, coupled with an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi, would get you the info you want.

CapnLoki wrote:I used the older fitbit for a while while sleeping, but found it very inaccurate. Remember, it only measures your movement, not your breathing or brainwaves. I tend to lie very still while awake, so fitbit registered that as sleep. Sleepyhead, however, shows a clear change in breathing when I'm not sleeping.

But Sleepyhead doesn't measure your brainwaves either, bc your CPAP machine doesn't. It measures your sleep by respiration only. Brainwaves were measured in your sleep lab study, but that's it. Otherwise, we'd all be washing out that gross sensor glue from our hair every morning, instead of simply taking off our mask.

I have the Withings Pulse. IMO, it is superior to the FitBit, Jawbone, or Nike Fuelband bc it has a built-in heart rate monitor. It measures your sleep cycles by monitoring your movements (restlessness) AND your heart rate. For example, my resting heart rate is 90, but when I'm sleeping, it gets down to the low 60s.

I don't believe you can use the sleep monitor function of these devices as a replacement for Sleepyhead, but I find using them together to be very helpful.

I had not heard of the Withings Pulse until you mentioned it, and was all set to go look for one locally.
Then I read the review:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/9/460187 ... lse-review
It sounds good, but maybe I'll wait--this does sound better than the Striiv Smart pedo.

chunkyfrog wrote: Then I read the review:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/9/460187 ... lse-review
It sounds good, but maybe I'll wait--this does sound better than the Striiv Smart pedo.

That review is mostly positive. I've been using the Pulse for a while now and I don't agree with the negatives discussed in that review. The heart rate monitor is very accurate IMO. I test back-to-back and get the same results, and I also test my heart rate with a body scan analyzer and it gives me the same reading. As far as the wearability of a clip v. wrist band-- that's a personal preference but I very much prefer the former. As a female who clips the Pulse into the middle of my bra (in the flat valley between the girls), I don't ever have to concern myself w/transferring it from pants to bag to pants like the male author of that review did. It just stays put all day until I take it off at night. Plus, as a business professional, I don't like the visability of the wrist monitors- it clashes with professional business attire, and I don't want to announce to the world that I'm wearing a health monitor. Where I wear the device, I cannot feel it, nor can anyone else see it.

The Pros are numerous for this product. Most accurate pedo readings out there, tracks calories burned, elevation changes, distance covered in miles, it knows when you're running and sleeping, quality of sleep monitoring based on accel AND heart rate, a far superior battery life than other monitors, and as I mentioned before, it is one of the very few gadgets out there with a built-in heart rate monitor, which to me was the cincher.

The Cons for me would be that it only automatically syncs your data to the Withings platform every 4 hours, and I would like it if that happened more often, say, on the hour. If I wanted to, I could "force sync" by pressing a button on my gadget (which you can do limitless times whenever you want instant data figure updates), however, being that I wear it in my bra, this is not the most convenient thing for me to do. My second con is that the sleep wristband is sort of flimsy, and I can see that wearing out over the course of time. But that's pretty much it.

The most GENIUS thing about this product is it's interaction with other Apps and Withings devices. If you're SERIOUS about losing weight like I am, it has been an absolute Godsend. It wirelessly syncs all your data into a user platform, creating charts for you to store your history and monitor your progress. It also syncs with MyFitnessPal (food & exercise diary), RunKeeper (tracks runs & walks), and Lose It (similar to Weight Watchers) automatically. Withings pulls your data from those free platforms and also transmits the Pulse data onto them- a two way auto sync. Seamlessly beautiful. The love child is a collection of charts that contain so much data on my INTAKE (diet info and calories consumed from MyFitnessPal) and OUTPUT (activity level, or calories burned and steps/miles covered via Pulse RunKeeper), that I want to cry for gratefulness! If you have the Withings WiFi body scale like I do, then every time you weigh yourself, it wirelessly transmits your weight and body fat % to your Pulse and Withings user account to update your history charts, which in turn automatically updates your info across all other app platforms (MyFitnessPal, RunKeeper, and Lose It) as well. So I am never wasting my time updating my weight across various app platforms.

I guess what I'm saying is... if you are serious about losing weight, then I would encourage you to buy the device now so as not to delay the improvements in your physical health. It was just released last fall I believe, so a new one won't be coming out for a while. It truly is the best of its class IMO, and it's only $99-- not exactly cheap, but not a gargantuan investment either like Lasik surgery or braces or something.

On the other hand, if all you're looking for is something to tracks your sleep cycles for evaluating your quality of sleep, and/or monitoring your steps, then I would say buy a cheap pedo and take a pass on this.

I saw some of the reviews on the Striiv Smart, and it sounds good too.
Did you get yours online or retail?
Where?

I tried to find a better deal than the standard retail ($99), but I couldn't. So I opted to purchase through Amazon bc I'm a Prime member (so free 2 day shipping) and I had $10 left on an old bday gift card to use.

From what I can tell, the main differences between the Pulse and the Striive Smart are that the Striive Smart does not track heart rate or sleep patterns, nor does it interface with food-tracking or other exercise activity apps. Also, the Pulse is much smaller. But the Striive Smart's draw is that it makes the user experience more social and "game-like" w/options to interact and compete with others. Pulse does give you "badges" and push notifications to encourage, motivate, and celebrate your successes, but I have to admit that the experience is more self-focused and personal whereas the Stiive Smart seems to promote its social community. So I guess it would depend on what you're trying to get out of the experience that determines which gadget is best for you.

Good luck!

So just an update, since I've been using the Fitbit flex for a couple months now.

It is VERY easy to tell it you are about to go to sleep. You just tap it quickly a few times and it has a little light signal it shows you to confirm. When you wake up in the morning you tap it quickly a few times again.

The graphs are, of course, no substitute for Sleepyhead but they can tell you when you've been restless at night or how many times you (say) got up to use the bathroom. I found it very useful for testing a hypothesis that I had -- that my husband was a major source of my restlessness at night (since he comes to bed way after I do and he himself is a very restless sleeper). Indeed, one night there was a very clear correlation -- my sleep was completely undisturbed until the time my husband came to bed, after which I saw a whole bunch of restlessness lines. But that only happened one night. Most nights there was no such correlation, just restlessness all over the place. I haven't been using it for sleep nearly as much for a few weeks. But I mostly bought it to help me remember to exercise, and for that its been really awesome.

I'd be curious to see what the fitbit graphs of a "normal" (i.e non-apnea) person look like. My fitbit calculates that out of the 8 hours I'm in bed each night, I'm only sleeping 4 - 6 of them.