Sleep Tracking: Time in Bed

[plnr]

I recently replaced my Watch Series 7 with the Watch Ultra and have been trying to better understand the "in bed" stage of sleep tracking.

While my Watch Series 7 did not record any time in bed at all, I now get it displayed in the sleep overview every morning - so this seems to be a new feature? Until now I only knew the option to record the time in bed with the iPhone, which I deactivated. Apple themselves write that the time in bed normally shows the period of time you are in bed, which in most cases is the time between turning off the light or falling asleep and getting up. Accordingly, the time in bed should actually consist of a single interval, unless I got up at night or something similar, right?

I have now noticed that the corresponding data for my time in bed consists of several intervals, some of which have longer gaps, which in turn correspond pretty closely to the tracked wake phases. But that shouldn't really be the case, should it? Just because I was awake for a short time, which happens several times during the night for everyone, the time shown in bed should not be interrupted because I was still in bed, correct?

For example, for last night, sleep phases (including wake phases) are shown to me from 11.24 pm to 6.08 am. I was in bed for the entire time and did not use my iPhone or Watch. Accordingly, my time in bed should actually be 6 hours and 44 minutes, right? However, due to the interruptions in the intervals, I am only shown 6 hours and 26 minutes.

Am I possibly interpreting the data incorrectly? If so, what do I really mean by the time in bed and why is it interrupted even though I haven't left the bed at all or at least sat up?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Graham4723]

Apple introduced “time in bed” without needing the iphone set up (I think) a couple of watchos updates ago.
Like you, I have this set to OFF. At the same time they completely messed up sleep tracking to the extent that I’m almost at the point of stopping.
I see exactly the same as you. I’ve even seen “time asleep “ longer than “time in bed”.
Last night I manually set sleep focus at exactly 11:00 pm and got up at 8:02 am, so 9 hrs 2 min….watch says 8 hr 15 min !! ‘Show all data’ registered I went to bed at 23:09.

 

[plnr]

Well, at least I'm not the only one who has this problem. This metric really doesn't make sense. For me, every wake phase is actually subtracted from the time in bed, which is completely absurd if I haven't got up. And the Watch should actually notice whether I've taken a few steps or not.

Unfortunately, you can't deactivate the recording of the time in bed. There should be an option like the one for the iPhone. At least as long as this problem exists.

 

[srknpower]

Apple introduced “time in bed” without needing the iphone set up (I think) a couple of watchos updates ago.
Like you, I have this set to OFF. At the same time they completely messed up sleep tracking to the extent that I’m almost at the point of stopping.
I see exactly the same as you. I’ve even seen “time asleep “ longer than “time in bed”.
Last night I manually set sleep focus at exactly 11:00 pm and got up at 8:02 am, so 9 hrs 2 min….watch says 8 hr 15 min !! ‘Show all data’ registered I went to bed at 23:09.

Is the new feature this?

 

[plnr]

Is the new feature this?

This could also come from the iPhone tracking. And given that your time in bed is less then your time asleep, it looks like it was tracked by your iPhone.

The new feature is that your time in bed can now be tracked by the Watch. At least theoretically.

 

[Graham4723]

Could be, I don’t see that but I have iphone tracking turned off.

 

[plnr]

Theoretically you could or should get the same with Watch tracking for the time between going to bed and falling asleep.

 

[Graham4723]

I’ve never seen that in Health with native watch tracking. Only Autosleep shows this measure but I’m not happy with that App, never seemed to get consistent results.

 

[plnr]

That’s why I wrote “theoretically”. The whole “time in bed” thing is really a mess and Apple should fix it or let us deactivate it. Until then I will keep manually deleting the respective entries.

 

[Graham4723]

Do you mean everything between first time and ‘get up’ time ?

 

[plnr]

What do you mean? I don’t get your question…

 

[Graham4723]

“Keep manually deleting the respective entries “…..
Which entries are you referring to ?

 

[plnr]

“In bed” data.

 

[Graham4723]

Yes … that’s what I thought you meant, but perhaps worded it badly in my earlier question.

 

[srknpower]

This could also come from the iPhone tracking. And given that your time in bed is less then your time asleep, it looks like it was tracked by your iPhone.

The new feature is that your time in bed can now be tracked by the Watch. At least theoretically.

Thank you very much.

 

[johnb300m]

I've had a very similar experience.
Prior to getting my AW-se, the "Time in Bed" feature worked almost flawlessly.
It would coincide with when I'd place my phone on the charger, and when I'd turn off the lights to sleep.
Then when my alarm went off, or when I'd actually pick up my phone to kill the alarm.
At the time, Sleep time and Bed time would record together, with sleep data coming from my old Garmin device.

However, once I got the new AW, and when some software update was done, "Time in Bed" is completely messed up.
I have "Sleep Time" set for, say, 10:30pm. But I never go to bed at that time. But my phone constantly records various slivers of intervals of me in bed, before I'm actually in bed. It seems to think any time after Sleep Time trips, my phone is not moving, is me in bed. Regardless of it being in a lit room with tv noise, or if I'm still yet still using it. Once I'm actually in bed, that's when I get the whole chunk of uninterrupted "in bed" interval.

I've also had to resort to deleting these plots of incorrect data.
And I don't know if it's from using the AW, or from other correlating software update.
Whatever it is, it's broken now, when it used to work perfectly fine.
Pretty frustrating.