What you need to know
- Fitbit announced a new approach to its Sleep Score, which has become more practical and detailed in the public preview update.
- Sleep Score now takes into account a wide range of data from your sleep, and Premium subscribers can rely on a digital coach and personalized insights for “actionable suggestions.”
- Fitbit recently opened its public preview to non-customers.
Fitbit’s digital coach is taking a closer look at your sleep this week, as the public preview gets a complete rework for your resting data.
A community post The overall overhaul to Fitbit’s Sleep Score was detailed in its public preview for enrolled users this morning. Fitbit cited its older sleep scores, saying that “a single number can only tell part of the story.” This new era is moving toward plans being “more holistic” and “transparent,” so you can see where you need to improve – not just a number.
Fitbit says there’s a lot more to your sleep score in this new era, starting with your “total sleep duration.” Although this makes up the “vast majority” of your score, it also takes into account how long it took you to reach “good sleep.” Think about how long it took you to get into deep, REM, or steady rest phase with a comfortable heart rate. Next, Fitbit details “Sound Sleep,” which is when it “adds all the moments during your sleep period where your body appears to be in deep sleep.”
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Rest, full wakefulness and interruptions are also taken into account. Each of these aspects is now broken down into bright, colorful bars in your Fitbit sleep data space. Users can go there and see if they were in the range, above the range, or well below it. Fitbit says these categories are based on “people your age and gender.”
Sleep is important—now you know it
Fitbit Premium users are the ones who can take advantage of this new Sleep Score experience with its digital coach and personalized insights. The post says that if a user takes a while to fall asleep, the app will now offer “changes to your wind-down routine.” Similarly, if your sleep scores have changed in any way, and you’re curious, Digital Coach can explain why you were more tired one day than another (even if you didn’t realize it).
As soon as this new sleep score comes in, Fitbit says you may notice your number go down a bit. This is simply the app adjusting to these new parameters, so it should bring your body “up to” whatever score it is now. Additionally, Fitbit acknowledges an issue with its sleep scores, as your device may say one thing, but the app will say something else. Moving forward (until this is fixed), the numbers in the app should be all you need.
The good thing here is that non-premium customers Now you can also join the public preview. If you haven’t subscribed, you won’t be able to see special features for subscribers—keep that in mind. Fitbit’s recent update brings a lot more to women’s health, like “Cycle Health” and better information for periods.
Android Central’s Tech
Actionable Insights is one of the things my colleague Derek Lee talked about when reviewing Fitbit’s personal health coach. The numbers are flashy and nice to look at, but without a backbone, are you really getting anywhere? Fitbit seems to have realized this and is bringing actionable flair to its Sleep Score. Sleep is incredibly important. Sometimes I feel like I’m not getting enough (mostly my fault). Nonetheless, now users can actually see what is happening to make the eligible changes.
