New Fitbit Premium Member feature encourages sleep with cute animal comparisons
Fitbit has introduced a new Sleep Profile as a Premium Member feature. It consists of Monthly Sleep Analysis, Sleep Animal and education and guidance. The aim is to help you improve your sleep by looking at your long-term sleep trends.
The company is pretty good at this sort of thing. Unlike some other brands which shall go unnamed, Fitbit devices can monitor short naps, as well as time in light, deep and REM stages of sleep. There’s even a Sleep Score to help you understand, at a glance, how well you’ve slept in the previous night.
The new Sleep Profile feature is only for those that have elected to pay for the monthly subscription. The first element of this is a detailed analysis of ten key sleep metrics over the prior month. In addition to the ones that exist for Fitbit wearers already, this includes metrics such as “time before sound sleep” and “nights with long awakenings”. All of this info will help you better understand the various aspects of your sleep and provide a comprehensive assessment of sleep quality.
The ultimate goal is to pinpoint areas to focus on improving. To this end you’ll get insights, education and guidance to help you improve your overnight rest.
The final element of the new Sleep Profile feature is a bit more fun.
Do you sleep like a tortoise, parrot, dolphin, hedgehog or bear? Fitbit will let you know.
A Tortoise takes a while to get going but slowly and surely it will get there. Those who sleep like a tortoise take a while to fall asleep but tend to get a healthy amount of kip time.
Then there are those that sleep like a parrot. Full of energy, they tend to be light sleepers. But despite their restlessness they get enough sleep, particularly Deep sleep. The negative is that they tend to get a lower proportion of REM sleep. This is the sleep stage when you dream.
Here are some screenshots from the Beta that was introduced a few months ago.
The feature has been in the works for a while now. It was first spotted back in May 2021 in the APK of the Fitbit application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. Interestingly, at that time Fitbit had a hummingbird and kangaroo as one of the six different animals. But has since decided to switch them around for other ones.
Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets
If you are not a tortoise or parrot, you might be a dolphin – i.e. a segmented sleeper. What does this mean? It means that you are a jazzed up creature that has trouble switching off. You sleep in chunks and your sleep quality is all over the place. Those with such sleep habits may find a need to supplement overnight rest with daily naps.
Hedgehogs are shallow sleepers. These people typically fall asleep fast, they sleep sound, but they tend not to get enough sleep. If you are a hedgehog you might benefit from increasing your overall sleep time as this will improve the amount of deep and REM sleep that you get.
Moving quickly on and we have the giraffe. Despite their large size, giraffes tend to sleep less than other animals. Those with such habits tend not to get as much sleep as they need. The positive is that they don’t have many long awakenings during the night and they get enough of REM sleep.
The final animal is the bear. This is undoubtedly the one to aim for. Bears sleep soundly, throughout the whole night. No change needed to your routine. This type of person gets enough nightly rest so will be ready to tackle anything the next day might bring.
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