Fitbit's always been at the forefront of making health more accessible to the masses by turning hard-to-understand and dry data into fun features. The New Sleep Profile in Fitbit Premium takes this a step further by assigning you a Sleep Animal that most closely mirrors your sleeping style from the past month, as well as offering a Monthly Sleep Analysis.
We recently spoke to a Fitbit Sleep Researcher about how Fitbit tracks sleep and it seems the season for sleep-themed content is far from over. Most modern Fitbits can track sleep; these include the best Fitbits to date, such as the Fitbit Charge 5 and the Fitbit Versa 3.
Some sleep stats are available without a Fitbit Premium subscription but to get the most out of your fitness tracker; you need Premium. And the New Sleep Profile makes Premium all the more desirable and better value for money. Let's just say: if you're into health and fitness and have a Fitbit, you're better off paying for Fitbit Premium than Netflix.
But back to the Sleep Profile. The new feature "looks beyond your nightly sleep and analyses your sleep over a month-long period to identify your specific habits and trends", Fitbit explains. There are three components to your Sleep Profile: a monthly sleep analysis based on ten key sleep metrics, Sleep Animal, and since this is a Fitbit feature, education and guidance.
"Which Fitbit animal am I?", she ponders.
Fitbit New Sleep Profile – What does it do?
Before we explain how the new feature works, it's worth noting that you must wear your Fitbit to sleep for at least 14 nights to receive a Sleep Profile on the first of each month. Ideally – and this is true to most wearables – you want to wear your Fitbit 24/7 to get the most accurate results.
Let's talk about Sleep Animals first; that's what you're here for anyway. Each month, you'll receive a Sleep Animal that "most closely mirrors your sleeping style" from the past month, Fitbit says. There are six Sleep Animals, each representing a distinct sleeper type.
According to Fitbit, neither Sleep Animal is better than the other; they merely highlight differences in sleeping patterns.
As for the Monthly Sleep Analysis, it's based on ten key sleep metrics, which are the core part of your Seep Profile. There are five new metrics such as "time before sound sleep" and "nights with long awakenings", and five pre-existing metrics like "restorative" and "deep" sleep that are now shown in a new way to highlight monthly trends.
"The ten metrics are critical as each one captures a unique aspect of sleep to provide an assessment of sleep quality", Fitbit explains, "They are also the determining factors by which your Fitbit identifies your sleep animal."
Finally, your Monthly Sleep Analysis will help identify what aspects of your sleep could be improved by surfacing "clinically informed ranges" alongside your ten advanced sleep metrics as part of the education and guidance upgrade.
You can see ideal and typical ranges based on other Fitbit users of your age and gender, which will help you know what metrics you could focus on for a given month to shift them into the ideal range.
The New Sleep Profile will be available in the coming weeks to Premium users so don't be alarmed if it doesn't appear in the Fitbit App straight away. Happy snoozing!
