8 Tips for Getting a Good Night’s Sleep

With most Fitbit trackers, you have the ability to track your sleep stats for a 24/7 picture of your health. But after tracking your sleep and visualizing your sleep data, what do you do with it?

If you find you’re restless or waking up often throughout the night, or simply have trouble falling asleep, there’s plenty you can do to improve your sleep. Take a few weeks to tweak your habits, and track your sleep each night to see if your lifestyle changes are adding up to more Zzzs.

1. Turn off the lights Not just your main lighting, all those electronics with power lights or digital clocks should be dimmed or powered down as much as possible. If you can’t block out the light in your bedroom, consider wearing a sleep mask.

2. Unplug yourself Watching TV or browsing your smartphone or tablet can keep your mind awake, and your body right along with it. Avoiding certain devices right before bed might help you fall asleep faster.

3. Go to bed at a reasonable time Start getting ready for bed a little bit earlier each night until you reach your desired bedtime. But be careful with this one. The last thing you want to do is lie in bed tossing and turning because your body isn’t ready to fall asleep. Instead of jumping the gun by, say, a whole hour, chip away at it in 10 to 15 minute intervals until it feels right. But more importantly…

4. Set a Sleep Schedule Going to bed at the same time every night can help you fall asleep faster. Your body craves regularity and keeping your circadian clock dialed in is extremely important for upholding quality sleep. As your body adjusts, you should be waking up naturally at the optimal time each morning as well, as long as you’re getting enough sleep. If you have time to experiment going to bed at different times, even better! You can find the time that works best for you. Set alarms on your Fitbit device. Bedtime and wake-up reminders, which are calculated based on your sleep logs, can help you achieve a more consistent sleep cycle.

5. Keep it cool Studies show it’s easier to fall asleep when the temperature is cooler. If it’s too hot, or too cold, it can be more difficult.

6. Cut back the caffeine & alcohol Try limiting caffeine intake to just mornings. Caffeine can affect your sleep for hours after drinking it! Studies have shown that drinking alcohol before bed may help you fall asleep faster, but it will also cause you to toss and turn— or wake up—more throughout the night as well, bringing down your overall sleep quality.

7. Get active Hitting your daily step goal  can help you sleep better, too. Try making an effort to workout during the day, and your sleep quality should improve, too.

8. Stay positive Learning how to destress and having a positive outlook is the best thing you can to improve your overall health and your sleep. Find simple ways to unwind at the end of the day—a walk in nature, a breathing session with Relax—so you can ease into slumber and have a great night’s sleep.

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  • All the info on sleep stages (both mine and people’s generally) is really awesome!! I love this part of fitbit! Actually, the whole fitbit experience is awesome, but I’ve been waiting for the sleep stages info ever since I heard about it and I am NOT disappointed! Thanks Fitbit!

    • I agree. Thanks Fitbit! I have had sleep apnea for decades and have various sleep aids: Bipap, oxygen, sleeping meds and sinus meds. Nightly info such as this I very helpful. I need Fitbit dimly do sleep stages info.

  • I would look at my graph and think I didn’t sleep until the deep sleep, now that I understand it, I’m not such a bad sleeper afterall. Thanks FB.

  • Since getting my charge 2 hr I have found out why I’ve been feeling so tired when I wake and quite often in the day. Basically I was getting on average 4 hours sleep a night, sometimes even less. I’ve now cut out caffeine after 6 at night and my sleep has risen to almost 7 hours. I love stats and have found this an amazing insight and worth the money for this feature alone. Love it!!

  • Love all the good information. The tips are mostly spot on as far as the ones I know about. It does make a difference having caffeine late in the day as well as the screen time. I also read elasewhere a person set a time, theirs was 9 pm where there was No screen time if any kind. Major difference and I tried this for several days and I found it to be the same. Great job

  • Great information!! I’ve been waiting for the Charge 2 for some time now. My wife bought it for me as an early birthday present.

    Thanks honey!!

    I’m 68 and have had some heart issues over the past few years.
    I love being able to monitor my health and overall lifestyle changes with the Charge 2.
    Great job Fitbit!!

  • I have sleep apnea I’ve really enjoyed learning keeping my eye on my sleep patten im still learning. I’ve had strokes& heart attacks this is amazing I love my Fitbit 2. Learning some great tips as I have real problems sleeping

  • Several years ago before electronic proliferation, my sleep cycle became regular. Ready for sleep at 1:00am and falling to sleep at 1:15. Then stirring around 9:00am and fully awake at 9:15. Oh how I miss those days! I could correlate my sleep with my weight, my mood and the overall quality of my walking hours. With my new Fitbit Charge 2 I’m finding I usually get less than 5 hours of sleep. I feel the effects of it too. I’m a flight attendant and my sleep hours always varies. I recently learned I have lupus. Receiving enough sleep is more important than ever. With effort I’m improving. I’m assuming to get into remmision. This is one of the greatest challenges I’ve ever experienced. With activity reminders and closely monitoring my food intake I believe I’ll be back to optimum health within a few months. Without my Fitbit, I don’t believe I’d have been able to make a proper start.

  • I get grammatical errors being an issue. That put a hiccup in the flow of my reading. For “anal” people like us, it is an obstacle. I also agree it is an easy fix, so, I’m sure (and hope) it will be addressed. Now, more importantly, I think the article was very helpful, and reminds us that this, too, is an (somewhat) easy fix. Thanks for the tips, I’ll give it a try. Keep it coming!

    • Cheeky! “an (somewhat) easy”. It could have easily been incorrectly written “a (somewhat) easy” ascribing the “a” to the consonant “s” rather than to the vowel “e” in easy.

  • How does FB configure a 1-2 hour nap in the middle of the day? To compensate for fatigue from a lousy night of sleep? Or just exhaustion?

  • hello everyone –im not sure if my question is appropriate here in the sleep section but i will appreciate if someone could explain why my resting heart rate has increased from 61 to 71 during the period i was increasing my exercise and activity…
    also my weight has been pretty stagnant (not being able to lose) during the same period.
    i can understand the weight remaining the same because of muscle build up, but could the resting heart rate be related to muscle growth?

  • Hallooo!
    Ikke vær så pirkete, ikke her! Jeg ser oversettelsen er dårlig, men jeg forstår hva han mener, og det holder før meg! Gode råd, og mye fin informasjon!

  • I am/was far more interested in the content of this article than its grammar. I have tough sleep issues, and will try to follow these tips in hopes of getting longer, unbroken sleep. Good article, and thanks a bunch for the tips!!!

  • No matter what I do, I wake up 2-3 times per night to pee. Even if I don’t drink water or herbal tea before bed… any suggestions?

  • I have recently bought a Fitbit Alta HR, having upgraded from a Fitbit charge. I already found the steps/heart rate info motivating – encouraging me to walk up escalators and stairs and lovely to see the benefits of exercise classes. However, the Fitbit Alta HR is even better! I’ve had sleep problems for around 30 years and the sleep information is so helpful. As is this article, particularly the part about the benefits of each stage. I’ve recently been trying to stick to a bedtime routine and am also leaving my iPhone downstairs (No temptation to have a quick peek and I read that even when it’s off it can emit rays which interfere with sleep). I use my Fitbit as an alarm.

    I can find the wrong use of apostrophes irritating (as has been pointed out it has been used correctly in this article). But I find people looking for the negatives even more so. The last part of the article is so true. Those who jumped to criticise the typos, try to see the positives. It will help you to live longer and happier lives 🙂

    I wish you all good sleeping!

  • Other things to investigate….

    Melatonin rich foods – natural sources only

    White noise

    Eye mask

  • An interesting thing about alcohol before bed. I’ve been aware that this has had a negative effect on the quality of my sleep. What I’ve discovered with my Alta HR, is that wine seems to affect my sleep worse than any other alcohol that I might consume. Much as I do enjoy a glass of wine with dinner, this has really put me off.

  • Just can not beleive folks are more concerned about spelling than its main intentions to teach, show and make us aware to comprehend all studys and findings suggested…

  • Thank you for the information. I have a question: my time in REM and deep sleep is very short comparing with the benchmark. My light sleep is far more than the benchmark and my wake time is low. How can I improve my REM and deep sleep?

    • @Jaqueline. That’s what I’m looking for too.

      Relatedly, I find I don’t enter deep sleep until after 3am (bedtime ~9:30-10pm) and get most deep sleep 6-7am — in contrast to everything I have read which says one gets the most early in the night.

      I use a sleep mask which guarantees the morning light at 5am doesn’t wake me (otherwise I would get very little deep sleep). I wonder how anomalous I am in reaching deep sleep in the latter part of sleep?

  • Great information concerning sleep stages. Would still like information concerning how much of each stage is recommended. Chart shows the average but is it the average that is recommended?

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