You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Yello5 Author

Level 1

25 points

Average time in bed less than average asleep time?

I am using the new sleep feature on Watch OS 7 and finding an annoyance with how the app is tracking time in bed.

I have a sleep schedule set for 12am - 8am.

I go to bed around 1am and sleep till 10am.

The watch and phone are accurately detecting when I go to bed at 1am but when do not disturb turns off at 8am the phone is tracking this as an "out of bed" event.

4 day Averages

Time in Bed: 6 hours 57 minutes

Time Asleep: 8 hours 55 minutes

Doesn't it make sense for time in bed to exceed time asleep? How do we fix the phone thinking its out of bed when do not disturb turns off via the sleep schedule?

Does sleep schedule even need to be turned on for sleep tracking?

iPhone 11 Pro Max, iOS 14

Posted on Sep 30, 2020 5:21 AM

Top-ranking reply

Godtepose

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Dec 31, 2020 2:34 AM

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.

View in context

Similar questions

36 replies

oysauce

Level 1

18 points

Jan 8, 2021 6:18 AM in response to Haleyrianneo

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.

Jan 23, 2021 10:16 PM in response to SCarew

Agree FitBit app was way better at sleep tracking (not to mention other things) ... 1) Apple sleep tracking is all weird with the hours in bed and hours slept difference issue ..... difference on the counter intuitive side that is ...... 2) also this whole need to have a silly sleep schedule for sleep tracking to work ... FitBit automatically recognises sleep ..... 3) in the app on iphone ... if you go to review sleep it just shows start time and end time .. not the duration ... so one has to tally up the minutes and hours manually ... wonder who got this bright idea to design it thus ...

hope they fix these issues asap

apple watch the physical product is great ... apps suck big time vs FitBit ...

Jan 28, 2021 9:03 PM in response to Yello5

I think it may be the actual uninterrupted time in bed. I’m assuming if you get up for the loo then this stops the Sleep App, as mine shows a thin line in the graph.

Not sure if I turn my phone on during the night whether this would also impact on the average time in bed.

What are your thoughts on this theory?

oysauce

Level 1

18 points

Jan 29, 2021 6:53 AM in response to Murfieslaw

My ignorant opinion: I think the watch and the iPhone work in tandem through data-sharing. The iPhone's contribution to the data is limited -- it only notes if you pick it up to interact with in the middle of the night. If there was no Watch, this is how the iPhone calculates time in bed and amount of sleep you got. Obviously, not truly that accurate. If you get up to pee with Watch on, that data would slice into the time in bed even if the iPhone is still sat on the side table. For me, I don't use the iPhone at all to collect sleep data and find time in bed inaccurate and not helpful. I just use the Watch, do not collect time in bed data (cleaner this way), and use the Sleep Schedule to help me delineate when I should be getting in bed and what's going on in that timeframe.

Nov 15, 2020 1:48 PM in response to Yello5

I’ve been experiencing the same thing for months now too! I cannot figure out what is causing the strange difference in Time In Bed vs Time Asleep either :/

Nov 17, 2020 8:31 PM in response to i_rina

How does this answer the original question? Seems like a bot response tbh.

Nov 28, 2020 12:34 AM in response to DDrewwwwww

having the same issue with sleep tracking on Apple Watch. I according to the sleep tracking spending less in bed than sleeping. The sleeping value is more the value I am expecting.

Nov 29, 2020 12:03 AM in response to Basti1900

I mean last night

SCarew

Level 1

4 points

Nov 29, 2020 6:57 AM in response to Yello5

I’m experiencing the same issues, except that my numbers for time in bed and sleep are drastically different. Please help?? I just miss Fitbits app.

Dec 2, 2020 8:00 AM in response to Yello5

You're not alone. Somewhere else, Apple suggested turning off sleep tracking on the watch, and then turning it back on. I tried that, and it didn't help. Clearly a bug...