The Science Behind Fitbit’s Sleep Profile animals

[JLuluFitbit]

Hey Fitbit Community,

Do you know what type of sleeper you are? The Fitbit’s Sleep Profile uses 6 different creatures to describe the most common human sleeping patterns as discovered in the Fitbit sleep data. On the first day of each month, as part of your Fitbit Premium Sleep Profile, you get a sleep animal assignment to describe how you slept the month before.

Fitbit launched Sleep Profile in 2022 as a premium feature that gives users a detailed monthly analysis of their sleep after they’ve used the feature for at least 14 nights over a month. The team used machine learning technology to cluster the user data and found the answer to their question — are there different types of sleepers?

Yes, about 6 types, in fact. Here they are:

“The bear. After a long day of foraging, most bears settle into a long, undisrupted sleep.”

“The dolphin. Because dolphins need to stay on the move, only one half of their brain gets to sleep at a time.”

“The parrot. Parrots have lively attention spans and lots of energy.”

“The hedgehog. Nocturnal by nature, hedgehogs spend the night hunting, staying active and alert.”

“The giraffe. While giraffes may have the longest necks in the animal kingdom, their sleep tends to be on the shorter side.”

“The tortoise. Compared with others, tortoises may take a little longer to get to the finish line.”

The team worked with ethnographers and animal experts to determine the right animals for each sleep type (and what they’ll look like). They also dove deeper into the data to figure out how many and what kinds of sleep types would be best to help people learn about their sleep health.

Something that users often find surprising and interesting is that their animals don’t necessarily stay the same each month. One month, your Sleep Profile might tell you you’re a dolphin, and the next month, a giraffe.

Here’s a look at Sleep Profile users’ animal types.

All this work is part of their larger effort to take this extremely useful data and make it something people can act on. “I’ve heard these adorable stories of little kids seeing the sleeping animal pop up on their parents’ Fitbit or Google Pixel Watch and knowing that it’s bedtime,” Elena, a Fitbit product manager shared. “It’s very cool to know there’s really a robust science behind something that’s also simply delightful.”

Learn more on how to track your sleep using your Fitbit by checking this help article. Share your sleep animal and talk to other people about theirs in the Sleep Well board. 

Your Fitbit Community Team