Since you are here looking at the best Fitbit for tracking sleep you are probably experiencing difficulty sleeping. The American Sleep Association reports between 50-70 million people have a sleeping disorder of some kind. The good news is there are number of ways to improve your sleep, but first you need to understand how much sleep you are getting.
If you want to improve something, you have to be able to measure and track it first. The Fitbit excels in tracking the three stages of sleep (Light, Deep and REM) with its advanced sensors, algorithms and powerful App.
If you are interested in a quick feature summary see summary table directly below. If you want more detailed reviews scroll deeper into this article. If you need help changing your health behaviors see my best selling book below “Fitbit Your Health”.
Fitbit Review quick Table
Fitbit Model | Sleep Tracking | Sleep Score | SpO2 | Skin Temp | Recommend | Check Price |
Sense   | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Best of all worlds - Great for health Mangement | |
Versa 3   | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Author Top Pick | |
Versa 2   | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Best Budget Smart Watch | |
Charge 4   | Yes | Yes | No | No | Good for Runners |
Table of Contents
How sleep tracking works:
All the Fitbit trackers and watches listed above have the ability to track your three stages of sleep described above. Wear any of these listed above to bed and while you sleep precise measurements of your heart rate and motion sensors work behind the scenes to track your sleep. When you wake up in the morning the data will be ready to review via the App on your smart phone or login to the Fitbit website with you computer or tablet.
Each night your body goes through the three stages of sleep based on your heart rate and getting the correct time in each cycle is what allows you to get up feeling refreshed. Deep sleep enables physical healing of our bodies, light sleep strengthens learning and memory while REM sleep helps with creativity and strategic thinking.
You start by setting a sleep goal of how many hours of sleep you want to get each night, the time you wish to go bed and even a silent alarm if you wish the tracker or watch to wake you up. Each morning you can look at your sleep data for the night before or see historical trends over weeks, month and year. Each night the Fitbit will give you a reminder that bedtime is drawing near based on the bedtime you set.
Sleep Score:
I found the sleep score an excellent way to quickly look at the App and see how well I slept. When I first started using the Fitbit to track my sleep I was surprised at how poorly I was sleeping. I decided to start researching what I could do to improve my sleep and made one change at a time and then watched my sleep data and score for a couple of weeks to see any progress being made.
Improving Sleep:
Some of the things I did were simple and resulted in immediate progress like setting a routine, not reading from my phone in bed, playing a white noise at night to keep me from waking up in the middle of the night.
I even got huge gains from buying the right quality pillow for my body and sleeping posture.
It didn’t take long to improve my sleep and now I awake feeling rested and ready to take on the day and it all started with sleep tracking.
I have written new book entitled “Fitbit Your Health: Behavioral Hacks to Get up and Get Moving”. Check it out on the link below.
Picking the right sleep tracker for you:
Knowing that all four of the listed smart watches and tracker will provide you with excellent sleep data and score I would recommend you make your decision based upon your budget and what other fitness features you would use on a regular basis. Don’t buy the most expensive smart watch because of all the extra bells and whistles if you are not going to use them.
Remember these watches/tracker do more than track sleep. Click here for our Best Fitbit article to understand the full range of health features.
Fitbit Versa 3 – Author Top Pick
The Versa 3 is my top pick for those like me that want all the data this watch provides plus the most important feature of this watch is the size of the screen. Having the larger screen for someone with poor vision like myself makes it easy for me to see the screen without my glasse
Below is a more complete list of main features but to just mention a few of my favorites are, waterproof, song storage, customizable watch faces, Alexa control, 6 day battery charge, and all the fitness tracking you need. From a look and feel perspective you can change out bands to customize the watch to suit your needs as I like to put the metal band on to give it a more professional look for the office and the silicon bands are nice to wear while working.
These bands take a few seconds to change out and one of features I like the best. Please check out the table below before making a decision and get the tracker or watch that best suits your needs.
Versa 2 – Top Budget Pick
This is an amazing smart watch. I wore this model for 18 months, and it performed flawlessly. This is a great device loaded with features. If you are looking to get into sleep and fitness tracking on a lower budget then make this your choice. If you are not sold already please continue to read about the feature rich device.
This is a great entry level into smart watch for tracking fitness. If you have read any of my other review then you know I am a fan of the Fitbit products. The reason is I wear the Fitbit for tracking my health and fitness.
I always have my phone with me like most people, therefore I don’t need or want to use apps on my watch. That is why I don’t need an Apple watch.
Now with said, there are a ton of apps that you can get for these Fitbit watches, I encourage you to look at the health features of each watch and let that drive you decision. See the tables below for a quick comparison.
Charge 4: Basic tracker
The Charge 4 is basically the same as the Charge 3 with a couple of additional features. The first is the ability to see you real-time pace and distance without a smart phone and then get a map of your route in the Fitbit App. This feature is handy if you are a runner and don’t carry a phone while you run. The Charge 4 also has Active Zone Minutes enabling you to feel the device buzz when you reach your target heart rate zones during exercise and celebrate when you earn extra minutes outside of workouts.
This tracker also controls your music, browsing recent playlist and podcasts from your wrist. This only works with your phone nearby, and requires a Spotify Premium subscription required and not available in all countries. The sleep mode mutes the Smartphone notifications and stops your screen from turning on at night. The last main difference is the ability to use your credit and debit cards to make secure purchases anywhere that accepts tap-and-pay (see participating banks at Fitbit website)
Fitbit Sense: The Best Health Monitor
This is the latest addition to the Fitbit Smartwatch line. This watch offer the best of all worlds and if you are serious about managing your overall health, then this is the watch for you.
If you look down the feature tables at the bottom of this article you will see there are only a few differences between the Sense and the Versa 2 & 3.
Are these differences worth the money? Well that depends on what the user is wanting to track and what bells and whistles are important.
So lets cut to the chase and make this an easy read for you. The only real big differences between the the Sense and Versa 3 is the Sense has the ECG to monitor heart. For someone who has a history of heart disease or family history, or just aging and wanting to keep a eye on heart health, then this could be a great reason to buy.
The Sense also gives you a stress management score, which I think is a great tool to help identify and manage reduction of stress.
I think if you are buying this watch it will be for the ECG ability. If you don’t need this function then your best bet is the Versa 3.
All models on this page will track sleep the same way.
Exercise Features:
Features | Sense | Versa 2 | Versa 3 | Charge 4 |
Real-Time Pace & Distance Using Built-In GPS | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Personalized Reminders | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
SmartTrack™ Automatic Exercise Recognition | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
20+ Goal-Based Exercise Modes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Swimproof | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Real-Time Pace & Distance Using Phone GPS | Yes | |||
On-Screen Workouts | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Reminders to Move | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Workout Intensity Map | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Heart Rate Zones | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Smart Features:
Features | Sense | Versa 2 | Versa 3 | Charge 4 |
Syncs Wirelessly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Always-On Display Mode | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Amazon Alexa Built-In | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Store & Play Music | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Fitbit Pay | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
6+ Day Battery Life | Yes | Yes | Yes | 7 Day |
Smartphone Notifications | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Connect with Wireless Headphones | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Spotify - Connect & Control | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
App Dashboard | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited |
Sleep Mode - Screen off at night | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Do Not Disturb Mode | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
On-Wrist Stats | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Apps | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Call from wrist | Yes | Yes | ||
Download Apps | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Color Screen | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Design Style Features:
Features | Sense | Versa 2 | Versa 3 | Charge 4 |
Greyscale Touchscreen | Yes | |||
Hi-Res Color Touchscreen | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Accessories | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Customizable Clock Face | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Fast Charge - Full day charge in 12 mins. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Health Features:
Features | Sense | Versa 2 | Versa 3 | Charge 4 |
Cardio Fitness Score | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Sleep Tracking with Light, Deep, REM | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Female Health Tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Guided Breathing Sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
All-Day Activity Tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Sleep Score | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Sleep Tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Resting Heart Rate | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
All-Day Calorie Burn | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Stress Management Score | Yes | |||
Reflection - Log your mood | Yes | |||
SpO2 monitoring - track the level of oxygen in blood | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
On Wrist Skin Temperature | Yes | Yes | ||
High and low heart rate notifications | Yes | |||
ECG - Fitbit App | Yes |