We here at HT100 love our Fitbits as much as the next guy (what a joy it is to get notified that you reached your fitness goals for the day!) but unfortunately, they may be less accurate in the realm of sleep tracking than they appear to be. According to Dr. Jaime Zeitzer, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Sleep Medicine) at Stanford, sleep trackers are only right if you’re an extremely normal sleeper—so the more you wake throughout the night, the less accurate they will be.
Just hear Dr. Zeitzer talk about it at the Healthy Aging conference 2025:
Other research has expanded on this idea: Johns Hopkins reports that sleep trackers often measure inactivity as a surrogate for estimating sleep, meaning, most sleep tracking devices make some guesstimate as to how much you’re actually sleeping.
What’s more: closely following these trends can actually be antithetical to getting on top of your sleep habits, as research has shown how fixating on daily sleep scores can have a negative psychological impact—especially on those people with existing sleep problems. In the video above, Dr. Zeitzer refers to this phenomenon when he touches on "orthosomnia", which is a newly-coined term used to describe the "obsessive pursuit of optimal sleep", driven by the use of technology.
So is there a way to get a true sense of how well you’re sleeping, and how you can improve it? Well, there are a wealth of tips out there, but here’s a shortlist to get started:
1. Stick to a sleep schedule. Set aside no more than eight hours for sleep.
2. Pay attention to what you eat and drink. Don't go to bed hungry or stuffed. In particular, avoid heavy or large meals within a couple of hours of bedtime. Discomfort might keep you up.
3. Create a restful environment. Keep your room cool, dark and quiet. Exposure to light in the evenings might make it more challenging to fall asleep.
4. Limit daytime naps. Long daytime naps can interfere with nighttime sleep.
5. Include physical activity in your daily routine. Regular physical activity can promote better sleep.
Go Deeper: