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".
Best Fitbit for Tracking Sleep Review 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 |
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. Having the best Fitbit for tracking sleep makes it easy to see how much REM sleep you are actually getting.
First Step:
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.
Best Fitbit For Tracking your 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.
To the right is a screen shot of the sleep score from the Fitbit App.
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.
To the left is a screen shot of the sleep cycles times from the Fitbit App.
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 getting the best Fitbit for tracking sleep.
I have written new book entitled "Fitbit Your Health: Behavioral Hacks to Get up and Get Moving". Check it out on the link below.
Other Data Fitbit Apps displays
Picking the Best Fitbit for Tracking sleep 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 best Fitbit for Tracking Sleep and 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 glasses.
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. This is truly the best Fitbit for Tracking Sleep.
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 of the Best Fitbit for Tracking Sleep.
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. The could be the best Fitbit for tracking sleep for anyone who prefers a small size watch.
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. If you can afford all these bells and whistles then this is the "Best Fitbit for Tracking Sleep".
Bottom Line:
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 |
Other Sleep Resources that I Found:
Room Temperature:
I didn't understand how your body needs to lower your core body temperature a few degrees to get a better night's sleep.
One thing I read about in a WebMD article on "Can't Sleep - Adjust the Temperature" it stated that the best room temperature is between 65-72 degrees F for the best sleeping conditions.
Now for me I ran a little experiment of my own as I used to keep the thermostat set at around 71 thinking I was saving some on the utilities .
During my sleep experiment I began to turn down the thermostat by one-degree every couple of days until I found that I sleep best at 65 degrees F and not 71 like I tried all those years.
Okay, some have told me that I am spending too much on utilities now. But really I am not, it takes more in the summer months to get it down to 65 degrees, but also in the winter and colder months I use to set it at 71 also and now I am 7 degree cooler.
It has more than evened out for me since I only ran my AC for about 3 months out of the year anyway. This new lower temperature is really making a difference for me at night. I can look at my best Fitbit for tracking sleep and see the improvement in my deep sleep at this lower temperature.
Will Pink Noise Help Me Stay Asleep?
I have always been a very light sleeper with the slightest noise waking me up at night and then I didn't fall back to sleep right away. I thought I did until I started tracking my sleep on the Fitbit.
It clearly showed me that I was a restless sleeper waking up often and not falling back to sleep quickly. This was really adding up every night and robbing me from a good night sleep.
During my research on how to stay asleep I ran across an article in the Smithsonian Magazine entitled "Pink Noise - May Improve Sleep and Memory in Older Adults".
So a low cost option to try this out was I ask my friendly assistant Alexia to play some pink noise for me. When it first came on I thought there is no way that I am going to be able to sleep with that noise playing.
I gave it a couple of nights trial and to my surprise I was sleeping uninterrupted. Our Neighborhood is a little noisy especially with traffic close by.
I was amazed at how well this tuned out all the noise that use to wake me up. It's like my brain was re-programmed to hear only the pink noise and got use to it playing all the time and drowning out the other noise.
These extra tips combined with the Best Fitbit for tracking sleep will lead you down the path of improving your sleep.
I am sleep so well now that I bough an actual pink noise machine as the free one on Alexia had gaps and would start over the audio file which woke me up. Still the best place to start is a free audio file to give it a shot.
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Schedule a Bedtime:
Another great feature of the Fitbit App is it allow you to schedule a bedtime and also gives you a reminder that bedtime is approaching.
I have found this gentle reminder helps me to start my getting ready for bed routine and helps me to bed on time. This has been a big help in getting me closer to getting 8 hours of sleep a night.
I still feel the best Fitbit for tracking sleep is the Versa 3 for price and functions, although any Fitbit in this review would be great.
According to an article from Penn Medicine “about 30 percent of the general population complains of regular sleep disruption, contributing to insomnia”.
Conclusion:
I have been taking sleep more serious since I started using the Fitbit and it has contributed to the improvement of my overall health and wellness.
I don’t wake up feeling tired anymore and I am more alert during the day and have a ton more energy. I encourage people daily to buy a Fitbit and change your health.
Small improvements add up to big health and wellness improvement as seen in my book “Fitbit Your Health – Behavioral Hacks to Get up and Get Moving”, see the link to the book above.
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