Recent media articles have been questioning the accuracy of popular health and fitness trackers claiming they provide more motivation than accurate figure reporting. One of those in question has been the very noted Fitbit. Well, that has changed, based on a recent study.
Fitbit has validated the ability of wrist-worn trackers employing movement and cardiac sensors, like its Alta HR, Fitbit Blaze, and Fitbit Charge 2 to accurately determine light, deep and REM sleep stages. Scored independently by polysomnography technicians, the results of Fitbit’s study show these devices are viable to track sleep stages with a reasonable degree of accuracy in normal adult sleepers. Hence, this helps eliminate the cost and artificial sleep environment of a sleep laboratory. Having the ability to gather reliable sleep stage data on wrist-worn devices can help simplify sleep research and increase public knowledge about sleep.
According to the company, with more than four billion nights of sleep tracked since 2010, it has the most extensive, longitudinal database on sleep in the world. Reportedly, this database uniquely positions Fitbit to identify macro sleep trends across millions of people around the globe.
Fitbit analysis found:
- While sleeping longer will lead to getting more deep and REM sleep, sleeping 7-8 hours gives you the highest combined percentage of time in these stages. Sleeping less than 7 hours will lead to deep and REM stages being a smaller proportion of your overall sleep.
- Waking up earlier than usual can impact the percentage of REM sleep you get, which occurs more at the end of the night.
- When getting five hours or less of sleep a night, users get a smaller percentage of deep sleep, which occurs near the beginning of the night. Deep sleep is important for many physical processes such as cell regeneration, human growth hormone secretion and feeling refreshed in the morning.
- People are unconsciously awake at night; the average awake time adds up to 55 minutes, or 10-15% of the night. Short periods of awake time are a normal component of a healthy sleep cycle.
Findings based on sleep patterns by gender and generation include:
- Gen Z (age 13-22) sleeps the most, averaging 6 hours and 57 minutes of sleep a night with 17% of the time in deep sleep, while Baby Boomers (age 52-71) sleep the least at 6 hours and 33 minutes per night with 13% of the time in deep sleep.vi
- People get less deep sleep as they age, decreasing from an average of 17% at age 20 to 12% at age 70.
- Women sleep an average of 25 more minutes a night than men and have a higher percentage of REM sleep, a difference which increases even further around age 50.
Previous sleep research has shown that most people spend 50-60% of their night in light sleep, 10-15% in deep sleep, and 20-25% in REM sleep. Fitbit analysis shows that age and gender impact your sleep cycle, and confirm that most people typically lie within these ranges on average over 30 days. Night-to-night sleep cycles may vary widely.
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For more details, visit http://www.fitbit.com
Also read: Medical Wearables A Thriving Market Not Without Challenges
Recent media articles have been questioning the accuracy of popular health and fitness trackers claiming they provide more motivation than accurate figure reporting. One of those in question has been the very noted Fitbit. Well, that has changed, based on a recent study.
Fitbit has validated the ability of wrist-worn trackers employing movement and cardiac sensors, like its Alta HR, Fitbit Blaze, and Fitbit Charge 2 to accurately determine light, deep and REM sleep stages. Scored independently by polysomnography technicians, the results of Fitbit’s study show these devices are viable to track sleep stages with a reasonable degree of accuracy in normal adult sleepers. Hence, this helps eliminate the cost and artificial sleep environment of a sleep laboratory. Having the ability to gather reliable sleep stage data on wrist-worn devices can help simplify sleep research and increase public knowledge about sleep.
According to the company, with more than four billion nights of sleep tracked since 2010, it has the most extensive, longitudinal database on sleep in the world. Reportedly, this database uniquely positions Fitbit to identify macro sleep trends across millions of people around the globe.
Fitbit analysis found:
- While sleeping longer will lead to getting more deep and REM sleep, sleeping 7-8 hours gives you the highest combined percentage of time in these stages. Sleeping less than 7 hours will lead to deep and REM stages being a smaller proportion of your overall sleep.
- Waking up earlier than usual can impact the percentage of REM sleep you get, which occurs more at the end of the night.
- When getting five hours or less of sleep a night, users get a smaller percentage of deep sleep, which occurs near the beginning of the night. Deep sleep is important for many physical processes such as cell regeneration, human growth hormone secretion and feeling refreshed in the morning.
- People are unconsciously awake at night; the average awake time adds up to 55 minutes, or 10-15% of the night. Short periods of awake time are a normal component of a healthy sleep cycle.
Findings based on sleep patterns by gender and generation include:
- Gen Z (age 13-22) sleeps the most, averaging 6 hours and 57 minutes of sleep a night with 17% of the time in deep sleep, while Baby Boomers (age 52-71) sleep the least at 6 hours and 33 minutes per night with 13% of the time in deep sleep.vi
- People get less deep sleep as they age, decreasing from an average of 17% at age 20 to 12% at age 70.
- Women sleep an average of 25 more minutes a night than men and have a higher percentage of REM sleep, a difference which increases even further around age 50.
Previous sleep research has shown that most people spend 50-60% of their night in light sleep, 10-15% in deep sleep, and 20-25% in REM sleep. Fitbit analysis shows that age and gender impact your sleep cycle, and confirm that most people typically lie within these ranges on average over 30 days. Night-to-night sleep cycles may vary widely.
For more details, visit http://www.fitbit.com
Also read: Medical Wearables A Thriving Market Not Without Challenges