While many of us burn the candle at both ends, like it or not, adequate sleep is critical to your mind and body functioning. That’s sometimes where activity trackers come into play, reminding you not just to move for a while each hour, but also to get appropriate rest.
As part of the Premium subscription for Fitbit users, a new feature has been added; Sleep Profiles. While it is cute, it’s actually designed to help users understand and improve the quality of their sleep through data analysis.
Ranging from new metrics, including sleep schedule variability, time before sound sleep and disrupted sleep, to previously tracked metrics such as sleep duration, restfulness and REM sleep, these data points portray a holistic month-long view of your sleep patterns and quality.
As a part of the data analysis, users are provided with ideal ranges for the different metrics. Based on your data, your sleep profile will be aligned to different animals and the way that they sleep.
Unsurprisingly, you’ll need to wear your Fitbit to bed regularly — 14 days per month minimum — to capture enough data for this to work. You’ll also need to be subscribed to the premium features to have access to the data analysis on sleep. For those already on (or who subscribe before the start date of July 4th) Fitbit Premium, your first month of analytics will be ready in 10 days’ time.
There are always caveats to features like this in non-clinical devices like it being a guide only. As with anything health-related, if you’re struggling with sleep quality, and quantity or have any other major concerns; you should consult a medical professional.
