FitBit -- worth it?

[chunkyfrog]

I wonder if anyone has run a side by side (simultaneous) comparison with Zeo.

[TangledHose]

wasn't my best night to run that comparison......had too many wake-ups, but at any rate it still shows more than an hour more sleep from the FitBit.

The data I am getting from the ResMed S+ seems pretty accurate and is interesting to compare to Sleepyhead...............but I agree Chunkyfrog.......would be interesting to see the Zeo read out too.

[MagsterMile]

I've been wanting to get a Fitbit for quite some time and decided that 2015 is the year to do it. My question is that since so many tech devices are geared for 'bluetooth' and 'smartphones' (both of which I don't have), will I be able to download my info into a PC? I was initially interested in only the activity tracking info but now find that I'd like to get the info on sleep tracking too since reading the above posts.

A friend of mine is using the Fitbit only for activity tracking. She has no plans to track her sleep activity.

[andy88488]

FitBit sleep data screen shot for comparison:



ResMed S+ screen shot ....same night's sleep:



Just thought I'd post so you could compare the difference and see how the FitBit gives way too much sleep credit since it can only record movement, and not actual sleep

Thanks for posting this. I have been very curious about the ResMed S+. I wonder if you could share more about your experiences with it, and your opinion of it.

[TangledHose]

I've been wanting to get a Fitbit for quite some time and decided that 2015 is the year to do it. My question is that since so many tech devices are geared for 'bluetooth' and 'smartphones' (both of which I don't have), will I be able to download my info into a PC? I was initially interested in only the activity tracking info but now find that I'd like to get the info on sleep tracking too since reading the above posts.

A friend of mine is using the Fitbit only for activity tracking. She has no plans to track her sleep activity.

Yes the FitBit comes with a USB "Dongle" that simply plugs into your PC usb port and allows the FitBit device to communicate with your PC. The data is stored on your account that you setup on the FitBit web site and your info will be on the "Cloud" (I hate that term - it's marketing gibberish for Internet). Very easy to set up the FitBit with the PC and frankly the data display on the PC is more robust than what you get on a smartphone app.

But I will reiterate here that the FitBit sleep data is just so so, and it gives too much credit for sleep because if you're in bed and not moving, but you are awake it will give you credit for sleep because all it can only measure is your arm movement. I find most nights it overstates my sleep by about an hour or more. Great for tracking daytime activity levels, but the sleep part is highly suspect. If it were me I would get a FitBit for activity tracking, but if all you want is a sleep monitor I wouldn't bother. But it is a great motivator to help increase daily activity such as walking, stair climbing, or other physical activity, it helped me lose twenty pounds, but you have to do the work yourself

[TangledHose]

Andy,

I have been quite impressed with the ResMed S+ and its accuracy, seems to be pretty good at sussing out your sleep stages and its been a good reference for me to compare my sleep stages/duration to others in my age group or norm.

The CPAP won't interfere with it as long as the S+ is closer to you than the cpap machine, it needs a clear line of sight to your chest and has to be roughly an arm's length away from you. I have it on my bedside table closest to me with my cpap behind it farther back on the table, it also needs to be situated a couple inches higher than the top of your mattress.

I'd say the biggest draw back is you have to use a smartphone or tablet to set it into or out of sleep monitor mode. It comes packaged with a wall charger with two usb connections, one powers the device and the other will charge your phone or tablet at the same time. The standard way that you run it is to leave your phone/tablet with the S+ App running all night so you hook it to charger so your phone/tablet battery stays charged. This is ok, but if you charge your phone/tablet every night this way you'll end up shortening the device battery life a bit as most batteries in these devices have charge cycle lives before the batteries start to degrade. I normally don't have to charge my tablets battery every night, so this method increases my charges cycles somewhat needlessly.

The S+ does have the ability to store data for about 14 hours so you could alternatively use your phone/tablet to set it into sleep monitor mode, then shut off your phone/tablet and then reconnect in the morning to stop the S+ and then at that point the data in the S+ would download to your device. As far as I can tell if you did it this way the only data you would lose would be the noise level recording as it does use the microphone on your phone/tablet to record bedroom noise levels, the rest of the data is recorded by the S+ device. I will try this method tonight as an experiment and let you know what happens - so far I have only run it in the regular configuration with my tablet running the S+ App all night.

[chunkyfrog]

Ooooh! S+, plus------Sleepyhead!
Mark has probably already thought of it.

[LadyWolf79]

I use the VivoFit for monitoring everything from steps, to distance, to calories. I also monitors heart rate with a chest band and automatically monitors your movement during sleep. I stopped using it for sleep because I didn't need a reminder of how many times I move around during the night. It ran about the same, cost-wise as the FitBit.

[TangledHose]

Ooooh! S+, plus------Sleepyhead!
Mark has probably already thought of it.

Yeah I thought of the same thing Miss Froggy................I know PR already imports his Zeo data into Sleepyhead........he posted a Sleepyhead graph recently that had the Zeo data about third graph down.........maybe I can suggest it to PR and Mark

[andy88488]

Andy,

I have been quite impressed with the ResMed S+ and its accuracy, seems to be pretty good at sussing out your sleep stages and its been a good reference for me to compare my sleep stages/duration to others in my age group or norm.

The CPAP won't interfere with it as long as the S+ is closer to you than the cpap machine, it needs a clear line of sight to your chest and has to be roughly an arm's length away from you. I have it on my bedside table closest to me with my cpap behind it farther back on the table, it also needs to be situated a couple inches higher than the top of your mattress.

I'd say the biggest draw back is you have to use a smartphone or tablet to set it into or out of sleep monitor mode. It comes packaged with a wall charger with two usb connections, one powers the device and the other will charge your phone or tablet at the same time. The standard way that you run it is to leave your phone/tablet with the S+ App running all night so you hook it to charger so your phone/tablet battery stays charged. This is ok, but if you charge your phone/tablet every night this way you'll end up shortening the device battery life a bit as most batteries in these devices have charge cycle lives before the batteries start to degrade. I normally don't have to charge my tablets battery every night, so this method increases my charges cycles somewhat needlessly.

The S+ does have the ability to store data for about 14 hours so you could alternatively use your phone/tablet to set it into sleep monitor mode, then shut off your phone/tablet and then reconnect in the morning to stop the S+ and then at that point the data in the S+ would download to your device. As far as I can tell if you did it this way the only data you would lose would be the noise level recording as it does use the microphone on your phone/tablet to record bedroom noise levels, the rest of the data is recorded by the S+ device. I will try this method tonight as an experiment and let you know what happens - so far I have only run it in the regular configuration with my tablet running the S+ App all night.

Thanks for the info. I usually plug in my smartphone at night, so that's probably not an issue. I hesitate to crap up my night table with yet another object. And I'm not sure how much actionable information this thing produces. But I wasn't even clear if the S+ would work with a mask & hose in the way, so this is interesting news.

I definitely see everyone's point. It would be very interesting to be able to integrate this data into our CPAP data. Maybe at some point...

Andy

[palerider]

Ooooh! S+, plus------Sleepyhead!
Mark has probably already thought of it.

Yeah I thought of the same thing Miss Froggy................I know PR already imports his Zeo data into Sleepyhead........he posted a Sleepyhead graph recently that had the Zeo data about third graph down.........maybe I can suggest it to PR and Mark

if you can get some kind of data file out of that, then mark can probably figure out a way to import it into SH, he's clever

[glarnold]

If you want to get the fitbit ($99), you might want to be aware that for $29 more, you can get the one that also will tell you the time.

[TangledHose]

Ooooh! S+, plus------Sleepyhead!
Mark has probably already thought of it.

Yeah I thought of the same thing Miss Froggy................I know PR already imports his Zeo data into Sleepyhead........he posted a Sleepyhead graph recently that had the Zeo data about third graph down.........maybe I can suggest it to PR and Mark

if you can get some kind of data file out of that, then mark can probably figure out a way to import it into SH, he's clever

I'll look into that and let you know what I can come up with - now it's a Mission

[Denise_in_MI]

Love my fitbit for day activities. But, I agree, it only detects movement at night. I don't think it is very accurate for sleep activities.

[TangledHose]

Andy,

Just wanted to get back with you on my little experiment last night. I put the S+ into sleep monitor mode with my Mini iPad tablet and then I powered off the tablet so I wouldn't have to keep it running all night with it charging (battery) and connected via Bluetooth to the S+. It went the way I thought it would........when I woke up in the morning and powered up the tablet and reconnected with the S+ via bluetooth the S+ App gave me a warning that the device connection had been lost during the night, so it would automatically begin the data download to the tablet, and it might take a few minutes to complete the data download. I think it was like three minutes to download the data, and everything looked normal as if I had the tablet connected all night, looking at the environmental part of the sleep graph I didn't see any recordings on the noise level which I expected because it uses the mic on the tablet or phone for that feature, but the temperature and light data were all there.

So you don't absolutely have to keep your phone or tablet connected and running all night, but the only way to get it out of sleep monitor mode in the morning is to reconnect with the S+ to stop the sleep monitoring function and get the data transferred from the S+ unit over to the tablet/phone and then from there to the cloud. Only loss of data was the environment sound level graph which is no big deal anyway. Having to reconnect in the morning this way was a little more of an effort than just leaving the tablet or phone connected all night, but if you want to save battery charge cycles on the phone/tablet you can indeed run the S+ this way. I am pretty sure I read in the FAQ page on the S+ web site that the S+ unit itself can store and hold 14 hours worth of data.