Fitbit for Sleep Tracking

I have been having trouble sleeping for the last two years. I am not a big fan of taking meds for sleeping since I think they will knock me out into such a deep sleep that I won't be able to deal with any emergency that may come up in the middle of the night. The main problem about trying to fix sleep issues is that you can't measure your sleep. People with sleep issues know that once you go to bed you are essentially in a fog until the morning. I thought if I only could measure how many times I woke up at night I can try different remedies until I found one that worked.

I recently got a Fitbit . The Fitbit is a small device you wear that counts the steps you take and reports it's results up to it's website where you can track your progress. It also has a small wristband that allows you to wear it to bed and it will track you movement while you sleep. My wife had hers for about 2 weeks before I got mine. We saw based on the data that she was a sound sleeper. Very little movement at night. She is always in the 90% range.

SLEEP PATTERN - MY WIFE

 I however, never get passed a 60%. See my chart below where you notice all the red areas are times that I wake up.  It seems to take me a long time to get back to sleep.  The time it takes me to fall back asleeep is much longer than normal.

SLEEP PATTERN - MINE

This data for me will be vital over the next few weeks as I now try to solve my sleep problem.  I can try different levels of excersise at different times of the day, or different teas at various strenghts. I am going to try many things before I try meds.  Who knows what will eventually work.  The cool part is now I can measure how i'm doing.

I will blog more about the fitbit as I use it.  Do you you use a Fitbit?  Leave a comment below and tell me your story.