Galaxy Watch Active Sleep Tracking

[T5iJenn]

I've had the Watch Active for 3 days now (previously a Fitbit owner).  I've had sleep tracking on my previous Fitbits, and either the Fitbit or the Watch Active is wildly inaccurate. I was averaging about an hour and a half of deep sleep per night on my Fitbit and my Galaxy Watch Active says zero percent deep sleep.  🤔  Also, for the past two nights, it has two sleep records each night, saying that I was not sleeping (not 'awake', but not even in bed) for about an hour or so.  I was in bed all night so..... the first night I thought it might have to do with DST, but it did it again last night.  Is this what I should expect?

[Eddie6]

Same issue here. Got Galaxy Active on 21st March. I am a previous Fitbit owner. Realised galaxy active's recordings are highly inaccurate, when it comes to climbing floors and sleep tracking. It shows 2 episodes of sleep, with an interruption of about 2 hrs where it didnt record anything 😮. I tried to put it in manually, it doesnt want to let me save it! Fitbit was sooo much more accurate. For this price, i would have expected something way better than Fitbit really. Its a total disappointment. I can use an expensive watch now, only for being a watch. Everything else is disappointing. With the hope they will fix it ( please Samsung FIX this!!) I am not returning the product just yet. But i def will within 30days if it doesnt come to its senses. 

[killmestop]

UPDATE: I've finally managed to get better sleep tracking performance on the Galaxy Watch Active!

I backed up and reset the device. It seemed to correctly record sleep for a night or two before the issue returned. The reset did take care of the issue where the Active decided I was asleep when I was awake and using my phone, though.

Dissatisfied, I reset it again and then added the following steps:

1. Made certain I kept "Goodnight Mode" as only activated manually and selected this as I got into bed.
2. Made certain the band was tight enough for the HR sensor to maintain good contact through tossing/turning during the night.
3. I'm a side sleeper and prefer to sleep on my left side, which is the same side I'm wearing my watch. I made certain NOT to sleep on that side.

Since then, I've been getting full nights recorded. The percentages I'm seeing of the different sleep stages are pretty much what I was seeing on the FitBit. I've tried sleeping on my left side again and have still had good results, but I've been more conscious of making sure my arm wasn't going to wind up pinned or in an odd position while I slept. I feel like the FitBit was more forgiving where this was concerned.

I do appreciate some of the other differences between the Active and my FitBit. The FitBit was, shall we say, generous when counting steps or flights of stairs. I feel like the Active more accurately estimates what I'm doing on that front. The HR readings I get during workouts seems comprable to what I was seeing on the FitBit and the estimated calories expended feel more realistic and less generous, which is helpful.

[Lightmaster]

I've been having the issue where it stops tracking for an hour or to at night and I have to manually fill in that gap. So does setting Goodnight Mode to manual seem to work as far as getting it to track all night?

As for the absimal Deep Sleep calculations, I think this is an issue with Samsung Health's calculation of Deep Sleep, not the watch having an issue. I've got Sleep as Android connected to my Samsung account and downloading the sleep data from Samsung (Sleep as Android is not recording it's its own data, just doing it's it' calculations on Samsung's data), and Sleep as Android is reporting much more realistic numbers than Samsung Health does. For March 26th, Samsung Health reported 18 minutes of Deep Sleep, whereas with the same raw data, Sleep as Android reports 1 hour 15 mins of Deep Sleep.

[GaryBrett]

@Lightmaster - I have been trying to tell Samsung since last September the issues they have in my opinion are with Samsung Health and not hardware related but nothng doing Im afraid.

The HR Issue many complain about also works well with 3rd party software (UA Record & Gear Tracker), now you mention the sleep works fine also with 3rd party app so it has to be S health thats is misreporting or algorythms are way out.

Having a suspicion about the problem and getting them to agree is another problem though 

[Emasullivan]

I've noticed a similar thing coming from Fitbit. My deep sleep is only about 20-30 minutes when it was usually more each night with the Fitbit. I've also noticed the HR can be inaccurate, for example during a work out the Watch was showing about 130 but I used the HR monitor on my S10 which showed 160, so a fair bit out! Not sure if it could be the HR being inaccurate that might cause the sleep to be different 🤔

[freystyle]

I think using goodnight mode does the trick. I tried it last night and it didn't have a 2 hour-ish break in the middle of the night. 

[killmestop]

Goodnight Mode seemed to help with the sleep gaps on my end, your mileage may vary. Fingers crossed!

That's really interesting about the calculations! I'll have to grab Sleep as Android and see what it comes up with by comparison. The FitBit also showed me as not having much deep sleep, so I didn't pay it much mind when I saw Samsung Health's results.

[EdwardS]

I’m experiencing the same isssue with sleep tracking where there is a gap in recordings for an hour or two in the middle of the night. I only have the watch for couple of days now and coming from a Fitbit Versa I really like the extra features on my Galaxy Active and the more accurate steps tracking.  But sleep tracking is also important and Samsung should fix this issue. 

I returned the Versa for adding steps while driving so I hope Samsung are aware of this issue and will have it fixed soon so I won’t have to return the Active as well.

[Gulde]

Hello there. Yesterday I bought Galaxy Watch Active (GWA). Pretty neat, nice features, great design, quite fair price. I bought it because it is actually first smartwatch which design I actually like. I had a Fitbit Versa (which will be now postponed to my girlfriend) and thing I really liked about it was a sleep tracking (one of the things I actually bought it for). So I was really curious about how it will be compared to the GWA. Took a GWA on one wrist and the Versa on the second and - good night!

At the morning, I compared the two. Results? Quite different.

GWA:

8h 12min of sleep (22:39 to 6:51)

48min REM

21min deep

5h 45min light

1h 18min awake

Fitbit Versa:

6h 59min of sleep (22:48 to 6:49, Iam not sure why it shows different sum according to time of sleep)

1h 37min REM

1h 3min deep

3h 47min light

1h 2min awake

I believe that the FitBit is more accurate in this, and Samsung should do something about it. Even the FitBit app is way better. Fitbit's is nice and transparent, Samsung Health is chaotic and not intuitive at all, and I hope they'll update it (read re-do it completely) soon. I still have 14 days to return GWA, so I'll keep testing and we'll see if I'll return it. I don't want to, but I also want precise sleep tracking, which is quite important for me...

[Eddie6]

I tried resetting now for the second time. Where everything else is mostly accurate, the sleep tracking situation is just sad. I tried what you recommended, turning on goodnight mode. But its still not accurate. As soon as i turn it on, it starts counting that i am asleep. Where else to be fair i dont just pass out from one sec to the next one. Then in the morning, until i turn goodnight mode off, regardless that i am moving, coming and going, my HR increases and whatnot, it still counts that i am asleep untill i turn it off. When i try to manually type in data, to the sleep record, it doesnt allow me to save it. There are still gaps in the sleep record, and todays been showing me that i woke up at 9, where else i have actually been aslepp til 11. And it doesnt allow me to adjust it. The watch it tightly on my wrist...so i dont know what else can i do... please give me some advice that worked for you.... please 😁