Anyone who has a pacemaker and wears a Fitbit and sees no deep sleep?

I do not wear my quite old and very simple Fitbit at night yet it still records about 90 minutes of sleep - I do not nap, do not know where the data comes from. I keep track of my steps, the reason why I got it. Now, my ICD does record the hours of activity among other measures - the information is picked up with the device kept on a shelf in the bedroom.

I think the constant/steady heart rate (60 bpm) from the PM is making the Fitbit think I'm awake. I had my cardiologist add the night pattern: at 11 pm, it drops to 50 bpm and returns to 60 bpm at 7 am. That hasn't made a difference in REM sleep or deep sleep. I'm not dragging or tired like I would expect if I weren't getting quality sleep. I use the Fitbit watch for a lot more than just sleep, since it's a smart watch. I just wish they'd fix the sleep part.

My Medtronic pacemaker was originally set to straight 60, yet I saw occasional 58s overnight or while watching TV for long stretches (1-2 hours). I asked my cardiologist to set the night pattern, which drops it to 50 bpm at 11 pm and returns to 60 at 7 am. Now, instead of occasional 58s, I see occasional 48s. My cardiologist says the pacemaker's readout does not show those dips, so it must be the Fitbit. I just figure it's an occasional PVC or some such anomaly. I haven't had Afib since the day before my pulsed field ablation on May 7, 2025.

FYI – the pacemaker is because my heart was too slow, averaging 39-40 bpm resting. The pacemaker does not keep me alive or keep my heart beating. It keeps it up at a good rhythm. If they turned it off, I would just go back to 40 bpm. My blood pressure would then probably get pretty low, since I still take metoprolol. I couldn't take the metoprolol before the PM, because my bpm was too low.

Do you need a stent?

@gseaborn Stent? No, my arteries are not blocked. I just have a very slow natural heart rate. Always have. Dad and brother, too.
I just think the Fitbit sleep algorithms don’t take into account pacemakers and the steadiness of the heart rate with a pacer. I’ll gladly take that over being in afib!

Btw pacemaker did not and does not eliminate afib. My Medtronic pm did catch and stop my heart from going into afib about 20% of the time. But it was the pulsed field ablation a year ago that gave me my regular life back.

I’ve had a Pacemaker over 20 years. I got the Fitbit several years ago and it consistently underestimates myREM and I think my deep sleep. Now that Fitbit has changed over to Google and uses the Google app for Fitbit, it is even worse. I think my Pacemaker is set for a minimum of 50 BPM from 11PM - 5AM to save on battery life. The Fitbit estimated For years 0 to 22 minutes of REM for me which can’t be right. The deep sleep it records a little bit better but can’t help but think that’s underestimated as well.. I’m looking into other devices to track my sleep. The Fitbit does a good job with cardio though.

I have a pacemaker and a Garmin watch. The garmin does not "do" the sleep at all. I "assume" it is because of the pacemaker.

I have sleep apnea and my Bipap does keep track of my sleep but does not analysis the types of sleep.

That’s pretty much my experience. I’ve had a Fitbit watch - a Versa, Versa 2, and now a Versa 4 - for years. It kept a close eye on my Afib and tracked my sleep and cardio. I got a pacemaker 4 years ago, and suddenly I stopped having REM? Obviously, it’s because my heart rate doesn’t work as it used to. It’s a nice steady 60 all day and 50 all night. My deep sleep, however, increased - sometimes almost 3 hours in a night. Most nights it shows zero REM, though. Completely unhappy with how it works since Google took over and changed algorithms. But do I need to spend $350-$700 to tell me I slept? There’s the question. Maybe if Medicare paid! By the way, ablation for AFib and a-flutter May 7, 2025. Last episode was the day before. Pulsed Field Ablation (PFA) at Ascension/St. Vincent’s in Jacksonville, FL. 👍🏻