I've been tracking my sleep for 3 years.
Stats & Graphs
I have been tracking my sleep for 3 years.
I decided to start tracking my sleep with hope to improve it and ultimately feel better throughout my average day.
My iPhone is always the last thing I interact with before I go to sleep so the day I stumbled upon Sleep Cycle (an iPhone app that doubles as a sleep tracker and a smart alarm) I started using it.
Learning about Sleep Cycles
Something I have learned from using this app is that humans sleep in cycles. We don’t go into a deep sleep and stay like that till morning. We actually have quite a consistent pattern where we go in and out of light and deep sleep. You can see these cycles quite clearly in the following graph of one of my sleeps the other night.
Smart alarm
The smart alarm has improved my sleep. Or should I say my waking up. A smart alarm is one that knows when you are in a deep sleep or a light sleep and wakes you up a little bit earlier if it catches you in a light sleep. For example:
- You set your alarm for 7.30am
- Your smart alarm notices you come out of a deep sleep and enter a light sleep at 7.15am
- It wakes you up at 7.15am instead of 7.30am
Because you feel better having been woken up from a light sleep, rather than from a deep sleep 15 minutes later.
Analyzing my data
It was interesting looking at the graphs each morning. It gives you an overall quality %, time in bed vs time asleep, deep vs light sleeping, etc.
But after a few of months, I got over the novelty of it and stopped looking at the data.
A sleepy habit
But I continued hitting the “track sleep” button anyway (it became a habit and I also really like the smart alarm feature)
Just a few months ago I realized I have been tracking my sleep for 3 years now.
Here is a graph of my Sleep Quality from the past 3 years.
It wasn’t until I looked at this graph that I noticed my sleep has actually improved since 2011.
Here’s a few more graphs:
On average I’m getting to bed earlier and staying in it longer.
I start my weeks out strong and it fades until Thursday where I ensure to get a good sleep because I know Friday will be bad due to a late night plus an early morning surf on Saturday morning.
Tracking sleep is fun in the long run
I think having this data is awesome. Now when I read helpful posts like this one I’m able to look at my own stats and make changes accordingly.
For example, my new main goal is to standardize my sleep across the week. Every sleep should be the same; sleeping in or catching up on sleep does more damage than good, apparently. The bar graph showing Monday — Sunday should be all level. It’s about consistency.
Summary
Looking back to late 2010 — early 2011, I am so glad I have started to do something about it.
A lot of the time it feels like a losing battle. My sleep still isn’t perfect and I’m often tired but I’m constantly trying to improve my sleeping patterns and habits.
It’s going to take a long time to undo 1-2 years of bad sleeping habits, but i’m half way there.
I think the numbers show that I am gradually, intentionally, and hopefully permanently getting better over time.
If you want to improve your sleep I highly recommend you read this: https://medium.com/the-healthy-life/b65f8e19ed18
This was originally posted at http://www.rotub.me/blog/sleep.html
