Average time in bed less than average asleep time?

I think I have found out a way to fix at least some part of the problem, if not the whole issue. At least it will make the «in bed»/«asleep» ratio seem more realistic.

Open the Health app on your iPhone. Choose the Sleep option, scroll down to the bottom and choose the «Show all data» option. There you will be able to delete registrations you don’t want there.

So this is what I did: I deleted «in bed» registrations from my iPhone laying still (not registrations from my Watch) that I either know is wrong because it clearly is based on my sleep schedule (ending 7.30am), or because it only shows a few hours of «in bed» in the middle of the night.

As the screenshots can tell, there was a faulty «in bed» registration on saturday 7th of November. In the «Show all data» option, I could see that my iPhone had registred 39 minutes of «in bed» 1 hour after I actually woke up (based on the registrations from my Watch), which I know is not the case.

Therefore I deleted the registration and as you can see, the «in bed» average actually goes up afterwards.

Go to the health app —> sleep—> scroll all the way down Click on Options —> Shut off track time in bed with iPhone if u sleep with your watch on so you get just Time Asleep tracked.

from my understanding their two separate tracking options .....

time in bed: iPhone

time Asleep: Apple Watch

you can see this for yourself by clicking Show All Data which is a few spots up from the “option button”

I am also curious about this, and the linked page does not seem to have any clarifying information on it related to the original question.

Could you please point out the details related to why the time is bed is shorter than the time asleep?

I don’t completely understand it yet but I think I’m starting to figure out why it shows less time in bed than it does asleep (which makes no sense). For the “in bed” hrs it sometimes takes the total amount of time you spent in bed awake or not wearing the watch and doesn’t include the time you are actually asleep. Like In some weeks where I don’t wear the watch one night, it will show for that night only “time in bed” but doesn’t register “time asleep” at all (since it can’t since I’m not wearing the watch). So then it takes that number and divides it by the days in the week so my average hours in bed is like 2.5 but my average hours asleep is like 7.5. It doesn’t seem consistent though- on weeks where I am asleep almost all of the time I am in bed, the two numbers are usually very close. Maybe one of you can figure it out... or maybe it’s just a bug. It seems like the “in bed” and the “asleep” trackers might be almost unrelated.

Hey Yello5,

It looks like you have some questions about the Bedtime feature of your Apple Watch. We can understand wanting to know more about that. We want to help.

We'd recommend reviewing the information here: Track your sleep with Apple Watch

If you need additional assistance, contact Apple Support here: Get Support

Thanks!

I’ve had the same issue. After a week with Apple Watch I’m happy with sleep graph but Apple thinks I’m not in bed half the time. 😂

But I think I’ve found a clue. Click More Sleep Data in the Sleep section of the Health App on iPhone. Scroll down to Average Time in Bed and click. You’ll see a graph of your “time in bed” what ever that means.

I say that because my chart shows I wasn’t in bed ever on two nights and for about 45 minutes another. Only four nights does it seem accurate. I’ve attached my screenshot as an example.

Despite this I AM impressed with the “sleep” graph. It clearly shows the trouble I had getting back to sleep a couple nights ago. Pretty accurate!

This worked for me.

I’m having the same issue. Seems like a massive miss by your engineering teams.

Right?! It’s especially weird that there is no explanation anywhere on the internet as to why these values look like they do... not even an acknowledgement that it’s a known issue they are working on :l

The time in bed is the time scheduled, the time asleep is when you don't have movement for prolonged period is my understanding (may include a nap or if you fall asleep before your scheduled time, or after).

Also having this issue! App consistently saying I've been asleep 9 hours but in bed only 2 minutes... Average time asleep is 8 hours, average time in bed is an hour. Hope apple acknowledges this and fixes it?

OMG. after reading what you’re saying ... are you on your phone while bedtime is active??

i’m thinkings what throwing it off.

im going to see tonight! so far bedtime has been on for 1 hour - and i’ve been on & off my phone. i’ll stay off until 5 am.

Has anyone tried removing iPhone as a source of data (vs Watch) to track sleeping? I’m not willing to try because I only just got Sleep working for me the other day. Seems to me between the two, the Watch is more vital to Sleep data. So if iPhone data is throwing the overall averages off...

The one thing I don’t know is if you turn off Track Time in Bed with iPhone, does it mess with Clock and the Sleep Schedule?

I just got my Apple Watch for Christmas and was perplexed by the numbers, but I think you figured it out. The missing days are throwing off the average. Curious if that was because you slept without the watch on? I think Apple needs to factor that into the math or provide two lines based on days wearing vs all days.

Yeah, so after everything seemed okay (after my initial set-up issues), I switched off using the iPhone for data and actually went back to delete all the iPhone data for "track time in bed." It's cleaner in data display since I only really need the data of when I actually slept. I think there comes a point when data and the gathering of it is actually more harmful than helpful if we get too obsessed about it. Using just the Watch is definitely the way to go.