Large-scale study of anonymized data from Fitbit users finds adults with obesity sleep less, with more variability Wearable devices give scientists a powerful new tool for sleep studies.
September 14, 2020
LA JOLLA, CA Obese adults sleep an average of 15 minutes less per night than those who are not obese, according to a new study of anonymized data from more than 100,000 Fitbit users conducted by scientists at the Scripps Research Translational Institute and UC San Diego.
The landmark sleep study adds to a growing base of scientific evidence on the relationship between sleep and obesity. And although the retrospective study could not establish causal connections, its results are consistent with other findings that suggest insufficient sleep and obesity make up a vicious cycle: inadequate sleep promotes obesity, while obesity tends to worsen sleep quality.
The scientists, whose findings appear September 14 in JAMA Internal Medicine, examined de-identified data from 120,522 Fitbit users, covering a median of 256 nights per user. They found that people with a body-mass index (BMI) of 30 or more the clinical definition of obesity slept 6.62 hours per night on average, about 15 minutes less than the average 6.87 hours per night for those with a BMI under 30.
The study also hints that consistent sleeping patterns might be as important as sleeping longer. The high-BMI Fitbit users tended to not only sleep less than the lower-BMI group, but also had slightly more night-to-night variation in their sleep.
We observed in this dataset that some people consistently got the same amount of sleep night-to-night while others had far more variable sleep, says study co-lead author Stuti Jaiswal, MD, PhD, assistant professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research. This variability may be important for overall health.
Obesity is a modern epidemic implicated in a host of other diseases. More than 40 percent of adult Americans are now considered obese, compared with about 30 percent two decades ago and about 10 percent in 1960. The complex condition promotes type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke and certain cancers, among other health conditions. Thus, preventing obesity could have tremendous public health benefits and getting people to sleep better is one potential strategy for doing that.
For the new study, sleep duration and variability were measured using de-identified data from Fitbit devices that track movement, heart rate and other health-related factors. Some of the devices also have a sleep-tracking function that uses movement and pulse data to derive estimates of the time spent in different sleep stages.
Fitbit devices and other wearable technologies have opened the door to large-scale scientific studies that were challenging or impossible using traditional clinical means.
We were able to analyze sleep patterns for individuals in their natural, everyday situations for almost two years per user, in some cases, says the study's co-lead author Giorgio Quer, PhD, senior staff scientist and director of artificial intelligence at Scripps Research Translational Institute. By contrast, sleep studies in a clinic have to be much shorter and don't represent the participant's everyday reality. Surveys of sleep habits also tend to be problematic, as they are subjective and thus, more prone to error.
For this study, the scientists collaborated with Robert Owens, MD, a sleep physician who was able to put the data in context of prior research.
The relationship between weight and sleep, particularly sleep variability, has been shown in small studies, says Owens, associate professor of medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine. To be able to find the same signal on a much larger scale, in hundreds of thousands of people, using Fitbit devices, shows the potential for wearables and consumer devices to advance science and public health.
The scientists plan to do further health-related studies using wearable-device data.
Researchers from the Scripps Research Translational Institute have published two prior studies based on Fitbit data one examining resting heart rates, and another examining the potential of Fitbit data to provide early warnings of flu outbreaks. They are also currently conducting a clinical study, DETECT, that uses wearable health data to help track outbreaks of COVID-19 and other viral respiratory diseases.
Association of sleep duration and variability with body mass index: Sleep measurements in the US from a large population of wearable users was written by co-lead authors Stuti Jaiswal and Giorgio Quer, and by Michael Galarnyk, Steven Steinhubl, Eric Topol, all of the Scripps Research Translational Institute; and Robert Owens, of UC San Diego School of Medicine.
Funding was provided by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1 TR002550). Fitbit did not have any role in study design, execution or funding.
Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolic Disorders Translational Institute Quer, Giorgio
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
23/07/2026
Download Now!
To receive a short case study showcasing Vivid Broadcast's audio setup, please enter the following details:
--
First Name* First Name ...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Witbe brings its AI-native testing and monitoring infrastructure to Amsterdam: demonstrations on real devices, a peer-reviewed technical paper in the conference...
23/07/2026
Quickplay, Caretta Research, Evergent, and Yospace have announced that the renowned IBC Pride Happy Hour will once again bring the vibe and fun back to IBC on F...
23/07/2026
At IBC2026, Interra Systems will present this year's focus: operational AI at scale for QC, monitoring, and captioning workflows. The industry has moved pas...
23/07/2026
Illusionfx is finally coming!
Alex Perea July 23, 2026
0 Comments
The new website is now live to mark the occasion.
Since the last update, feedback h...
23/07/2026
Evergent (5.A86) will showcase its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform for streaming services, sports leagues, pay-TV operators at IBC2026 (RAI Amsterdam, 11...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program 23 July 2026
Screen Australia has today announced the Above the Line Documentary Accel...
23/07/2026
RT Commercial has today announced Centra as the official food partner once again of The Traitors Ireland, coming to RT One and RT Player later this year.
Ce...
23/07/2026
RT Commercial today announced Honda as sponsor of Today with David McCullagh RT Radio 1, weekdays 9am 11am.
Broadcasting directly after Morning Ireland in ...
23/07/2026
RT News is pleased to announce Barry Gallagher has been assigned as the new journalist covering news from Cork, Kerry and the wider Southern region
Working al...
23/07/2026
Lock in and load up the cloud. GFN Thursday brings fresh updates and new adventu...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
Large-scale study of anonymized data from Fitbit users finds adults with obesity sleep less, with more variability Wearable devices give scientists a powerful new tool for sleep studies.
