Heart rate graph doesn't show up

I decided to take a look at SleepAsAndroid again after taking a bit of a break from it and I am unable to get my heart rate to show up in the graphs despite SleepAsAndroid successfully syncing with my HR strap.

I’m using a OnePlus 6T with a Wahoo Tickr BT heart rate strap in conjunction with the Sonar feature. SleepAsAndroid successfully pairs with the HR monitor and shows the little pulsing heart with my current heart rate inside it when I first enable sleep tracking (it usually takes several seconds for the number to show up inside the heart). When I get up in the morning (usually prior to the alarm) and unlock the phone, I immediately see the pulsing heart with the number for my heart rate inside it which seems to indicate that it remained connected/synced overnight. My graphs show breathing, motion, noise and sleep phases, but there’s never a red HR line; not even a broken one at the ends.

Body sensor permissions are enabled for sleep. I did notice this morning that background activity optimizations were also enabled for Sleep, so I disabled that; will see if that makes any difference tonight. Any other ideas?

A chest strap, particularly Wahoo, will disconnect with no movement.

Get an armband HR. For the best battery life and dependability, I use the Scosche Rhythm 24. The older model also works well, but the strap slips. Get the new one instead.

I have the Ticker Run, for workouts. Not for sleep. That’s just the way it is: a chest strap will stop. Sometimes, the Polar chest strap worked after falling asleep. But rarely.

That hasn’t been the case with this HR strap and SleepAsAndroid on my previous phone, a Galaxy S8. I used both this one and my Polar strap for several months with that phone.

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I believe you, but I just don’t see how that is possible. I have a Note 8. I have used several Notes over the years, the 2, 4, and 8. And a Galaxy S5 Active, after the Note 7 debacle. Same with all of them. The Tickr stops.

Perhaps with a Polar, but a Wahoo is not for sleep; it detects movement and tracks HR. No movement and it’s off; cyclists have been complaining about this for years because they often have extended breaks. I actually have 3 Wahoo straps! All only for fitness activities. Including the plain vanilla Tickr. (The company is very good with support and I ended up with an extra strap.)

Every single one cuts out after about 45 minutes if you stop moving. It’s not a bug; it’s a battery saving feature. It has no on/off button! So how else can it turn on and off? I was fortunate to get the old Polar H7 to last about 2 nights several years ago. Truly amazing, but not battery efficient. And it’s a nightmare to change the H7 battery. Which is why I switched to Wahoo.

Could you upload both the good and bad graphs? I am surprised and intrigued.

Robin, now you have me second guessing myself on the Tickr. I know for sure that the Polar worked because I actually bought that specifically FOR SleepAsAndroid what seems like ages ago.

The graphs don’t show anything particularly revealing except for the fact that I don’t sleep well (and I snore). On the old ones, there’s HR data; on the new ones, there’s no HR data at all. Here’s a graph from just before I switched to using my FitBit:

At this point, I’m not sure whether that was with the H7 or the Tickr.

The permission changes that I made to my phone didn’t make a difference. At this point, I’m half tempted to try the Rhythm 24 that you recommended.

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Or… I may just go back to using the FitBit. I really do like the data that SleepAsAndroid provides and it definitely guesses my REM sleep with more accuracy than FitBit does, but FitBit does a MUCH better job of figuring out when I’m awake and when I’m asleep after I’ve gone to bed, despite having “Awake Detection” enabled in SleepAsAndroid.

The other night, I lay awake, tossing and turning for at least an hour. I even intentionally waved my arms to make big Sonar spikes. SleepAsAndroid had me in a light sleep & even a brief deep sleep during that period. :frowning:

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Well, that’s complicated because insomniacs sometimes actually do fall asleep briefly without realizing it. It’s part of the torment of insomnia.

And there are two levels of light sleep, one of which is partially awake. You can only get that kind of data in a sleep lab.

I never had a Fitbit, so I have no idea how accurate it is or is not. But a solid HR monitor will help SaA get the data it needs to be extremely accurate. You may want to take screen shots or some way of documenting the exact times when you were awake. I used to do that with a manual sleep app before I tried Sleep As Android, which astonished me with it’s lack of many false positives. And it keeps getting better.

Using Sonar is also another variable. I use a Pebble Time watch and my Scosche Rhythm 24 together. Wrist HR measurements can’t compare to the armband’s continuous data. And it virtually never lets me down. (Once a month, it’s a good idea to clean the contacts on the device.) And my Pebble watch NEVER fails. Just not ever.

I sometimes use Sonar for naps.

That is indeed part of the torment!

I got the Rhythm 24 yesterday and tried it last night. It worked! w00t! I had to put some tape over that blinding blue strobe light and it’s going to take some time to get used to the sensation of it on my arm; I found it to be the most comfortable just above the elbow/below the peak of my bicep. I love that it stayed mostly dry during my ride this morning; my HR straps get drenched! Like a dummy, I left it in HRV mode last night and it barely had enough battery life left to get thru the ride this morning.

On the FitBit subject, I have a Charge 3 but stopped using it. It’s the best of the several fitness trackers that I’ve tried, but the cons outweigh the pros. For me, the live HR tracking throughout the day proved to be very accurate once I got the strap adjusted properly. The notifications and contactless payments (even w/o the phone nearby) were also nice. I also really liked its ability to detect when I was fully awake vs sleeping in the middle of the night, tho I have my doubts about it’s detection of the various sleep stages.

The Charge 3 does a really good job at step counting. When comparing it directly to my Fitbit Zip (which I wear on my shoe or on the hem of my shorts), the numbers are quite close and I’ve found the Zip to be extremely accurate. However, the charge get’s soooooo many false positives during the day that it often ends up reporting 3 to 4 times the number of actual steps take… and it uses steps as part of its calorie burn calculations, so those numbers end up getting skewed. I’ve had it count thousands of steps while I was sitting at my desk conversing with people (I do gesture a lot). I’ve also had it count 15000+ steps during some of my long bike rides, and the app is not smart enough to see that there’s a conflict between those steps and that ride over the same exact period of time (after importing it from another service). It is possible to put it into “cycling” mode during that time, in which case it won’t count calories for those false steps, but it WILL still count the steps… and if I forget to do that, I end up, I sometimes end up with a 6000 calorie day. :smiley:

Back to sleep tracking, I wore the fitbit last night and also used SleepAsAndroid with the Rhythm 24. There was a point at 11:00ish where I was definitely awake and moving around (and looking at the clock). The FitBit logged that as a brief awake time. SleepAsAndroid shows a strong motion and HR peak at that time but thought I was in a light sleep. At 12:42am, I got out of bed to pee and got back into bed at 12:45 am. The FitBit shows this as wake time and even counted my steps. SleepAsAndroid shows a massive motion spike over that period and even has recordings of me getting out of and back into bed, but had me in a light sleep the whole time, followed minutes later by REM sleep. SleepAsAndroid reported 6:19 total sleep time while the FitBit reported 5:47; I feel like the fitbit was the more accurate one in that regard.

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Interesting. Do you upload to Sleep Cloud? That will give you a moment by moment look at SaA tracking, including HR.

I tend to get quite accurate awake times, but I am using a different watch to track.

Thank you for the testing. I am not switching to Fitbit for the foreseeable future, but it’s interesting to see how it works. Pebble Health does not give any steps when cycling.

Thanks again.

I used both of them again last night. The Rhythm 24 died about an hour before I woke up; gotta remember to put that thing on the charger every day… back to the polar for this morning’s ride!

There were 5 different times where I was very definitely awake and moving around (took a bathroom break during one of them). I spoke out loud each time so that SaA would make a recording. SaA showed lots of motion and an elevated heart rate during each one, but still had me asleep. Irritatingly, the Fitbit correctly showed me awake during each of them plus one other period where SaA has a recording of some bedsheet sounds followed by a meow and me muttering “get the hell off me!” lol!

SaA’s wake detection just isn’t working for me for whatever reason, even when I get up out of bed and move around. I’m going to try it tonight with Sonar off and use the phone’s accelerometer instead. I have the phone clipped to an arm attached to the headboard, which does move a bit with the bed, so that should be enough to trigger the accelerometer; we’ll see.

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I had a polar BT HR strap that was a bit older that gave out and i ordered a newer one that was on the supported list. The Dutch company haggled about delays 3 months before they went bankrupt. :sob:

I tried ordering a “MiBand 3” through Wish, but the delivered band was something “similar” but definitely not supported (and not properly described on Wish).

I bought another cheap bt heartrate monitor https://www.wish.com/product/59ab9fbc787e7b6da29516b1 331 SEK including postage etc. which I didn’t expect to work with Sleep but hopefully with an exercise app, but found it works well with Sleep! (though sometimes other wearable devices can interfere with the connection.


It identifies as " Xingzhe HRMPro".

It doesn’t connect as BT (though the phone finds it), but does with ANT+.

Just thought someone might want to know.

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Hi, I’m new to Sleep as Android. Do you still use your Pebble watch and Scosche Rhythm 24? I’ve had the sleep as android app for several years and recently got a fibit charge 3 (stupidly not realizing it doesnt work with sleep as android). I have recently started sleeping very poorly and my doctor told me to get a fitbit with the goal in mind to send him some data. It is not accurate (says I was asleep when I’m awake) and vice versa. I’m really looking for something very accurate. I also run to try to help with sleep. So I’m looking for something that is good for running too. Any help you could give would be very much appreciated! Thank you!

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Yes. I am using both wearables right now.

If you find a new Pebble on Amazon or eBay, download a guide in the Google Play Store to put the standard Pebble app on your phone. You have to use a mirror site because of new rules that Fitbit did not comply with. It’s identical. And then continue to follow the directions on the guide app to install the Rebble OS on your watch. I would recommend a Pebble Time. They are usually available. The Time Steel has a tougher build quality but they are charging a lot of money for one now. No need to spend that much when you can customize the look on your own. It’s still the best, easiest and most reliable. I have 3 watches in rotation to maximize the total battery life. By the way, Fitbit has been acquired by Google.

The Scosche armband monitor is very reliable and almost as accurate as a chest strap. Very comfortable. (You have to clean it every so often. That’s all.)

With the combined data, your doctor should be pleased. :slightly_smiling_face:

P.S. – I forgot about the running. As for running, there are numerous fitness apps in the Pebble Store. I use a a 3rd party workout step counter to get my distance, and then plug it into Map My Fitness on an indoor rebounder (protects the joints). If it works with that, it will work outside for sure! There are many others; try them until you find the one you like best. Some need your phone and some don’t, depending upon how they work. MeeRun, pacekeeper . . . there are so many.

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