Fitbit Develops New, Powerful Sleep Features to Improve Physical and Mental Health

Fitbit is introducing a new, simple and effective sleep feature to help millions of Fitbit users around the world get a good night's sleep and improve their health.

Sleep is an important factor in health and quality of life, from preventing cardiovascular diseases like diabetes and obesity to improving neurological function for mental health and longevity. New sleep schedule management features available through the Fitbit app and Fitbit’s activity trackers help users get a good night’s sleep.

Sleep scheduling is the first of a series of new sleep features being developed in collaboration with Fitbit’s new advisors and renowned sleep experts: Dr. Michael Graner of the University of Arizona, Dr. Allison Shearburn of Stanford University, and Dr. Michael Smith of Johns Hopkins University.


Fitbit has been working to make it easier and smarter for users to use Fitbit's activity tracker by introducing upgraded features through the app, such as the automatic exercise recognition function (SmartTrack) that makes it easy to record exercise and automatic sleep monitoring.

Because the Fitbit platform offers a full range of activities, including fitness trackers, apps, social and motivational features, and personalized guidance, apps play a very important role. The Fitbit platform helps users exercise more, be more active, eat smarter, monitor their sleep patterns, and manage their weight. Many people know that sleep is a very important factor in their health, but getting a good night’s sleep of 7 to 9 hours every night can be harder than you think.

According to Fitbit’s sleep experts, maintaining a regular and consistent sleep schedule is one of the most important factors in improving sleep quality. In fact, Dr. Michael Graner said, “Irregular sleep habits can cause symptoms similar to jet lag caused by frequent travel. This is because it constantly changes your biological rhythm, also known as your body clock, which can have negative effects on your health and quality of life.”

He also said, “Getting enough sleep every night is essential not only for physical activity but also for mental health and cognitive ability improvement, and bedtime and wake-up time should also be consistent. In this regard, Fitbit’s new sleep schedule management function helps people develop healthy sleep habits by informing them of the actual amount of time they slept. We expect that the new function will help millions of people around the world improve their sleep and lifestyle habits in a healthy way.”

Research has also shown how much sleep is essential and positively impacts the next day’s physical performance, post-workout rehabilitation, and the body’s ability to recover on its own. Data recorded on Fitbit also shows a correlation between sleep time and active time. For example, users who are overweight or obese (BMI 25 or higher) sleep about 70 minutes less per week on average than users who are of a healthy weight (BMI 18.5-25), while users who sleep an average of 7-9 hours per night have a lower body mass index (BMI) than those who sleep only 3-4 hours.

“The power of our new Fitbit Sleep Schedule is that it takes your sleep data all day long from your activity tracker, analyzes your sleep patterns, and creates a personalized sleep schedule just for you,” said Tim Roberts, VP of Interactive at Fitbit. “This is a great example of how we’re using Fitbit data to help millions of people build healthy habits, and it’s the first of many new sleep features we’re building to provide people with data and guidance to take their own path to better health.”