Did you Sleep today?

Ahead of World Sleep Day, Fitbit reveals that Indians are some of the poorest sleepers in the world, clocking in an average of 6.55 hours a night. The sleep statistics, based on aggregated and anonymous Fitbit data from January to December 2016, also revealed that Asians get less sleep on average than their American and European counterparts. Of the 18 countries covered by the data, people in New Zealand, Australia and the UK get the most sleep on average per night (full rankings can be found below).

Along with diet and exercise, good sleep plays a critical role in health and overall wellbeing, from protecting against cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity, to boosting neurocognitive functions, mental health and longevity, according to the Institute of Medicine, (US) Committee on Sleep Medicine and Research .

Meanwhile, a recent study Need for Sleep , found that Indian teens who had insufficient sleep did worse cognitively than teens on the recommended amount of sleep of their age group.

In order to provide users with deeper insights on their sleep, Fitbit is introducing two dynamic sleep tools that will be launched later this month, Sleep Stages and Sleep Insights , providing information on sleep quality and advice on how to improve sleep patterns. Sleep Stages, which was developed with a panel of sleep experts over the last two years, utilises heart rate variability to estimate the amount of time spent in light, deep and REM sleep, as well as time awake each night, to better understand sleep quality. Sleep Insights, which is based on Fitbit data gained from over 3 billion nights of logged sleep, provides personalised guidance on how to improve sleep for better overall health. The recently launched Fitbit Alta HR™ features these sleep tracking features, providing actionable insights and guidance in the Fitbit app so that users can make more informed decisions about health and stay motivated to reach their wellness goals.

By better knowing sleep quality and patterns, users can make lifestyle changes to improve sleep over time, such as diet, exercise, winding down before bed and keeping a consistent sleep schedule. Tracking sleep patterns could also help identify variations that can be indicative of other issues. For example, it has been shown that irregularities in sleep patterns could be a sign of a sleep condition that should be discussed with a doctor according to the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (February 2014).

“From helping maintain a healthy immune system, to preserving your cognitive functions and managing a healthy weight, your sleep – or lack of – plays a critical role,” said Dr. Allison Siebern, Stanford University and Fitbit Advisory Panel Sleep Expert. “Fitbit’s new sleep features use a scientific-based approach to show your sleep patterns over time, and provide you with validated, actionable guidance to help you make changes in your daily routine to achieve greater quality sleep – and in turn improve your overall health. Given the comfort and accessibility of this product, it’s one of the most valuable and useful sleep tracking solutions available to consumers outside of a sleep lab.”

Fitbit has sold over 60 million devices globally till date, out of which 22 million were sold in 2016 itself. Majority of sales have been for sleep tracking devices including Charge HR, Blaze, Alta, Charge 2 and Flex 2 making them the best sellers.

Sleep Duration Rankings (Based on aggregated and anonymous Fitbit data from Jan – Dec 2016)