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Get better sleep – Anecdata and sleep tech

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Re: Get better sleep – Anecdata and sleep tech

#11

Post by gumby »

serp002 wrote: post #10
throwoutway wrote: post #4

Married with kids, I don’t even know where to start with sleep tracking. I had an app that measured movement and noise, but it could be my spouse. I think a watch would work, but I don’t want to wear a watch to sleep

I used to use an Oura ring but the accuracy is actually not so great (Potentially going to get better with new algorithm coming out) and switched to a fitbit charge 5. App is pretty slick and really easy to see your sleep data, also quite a small wearable. There's a youtuber who compares all wearables for accuracy with actual sleep measuring equipment and Fitbit charge 5 is (surprisngly) the most accurate. Here's a l…

Unfortunately it’s not a link to a graph but to some video. If you have a link to the graph could you post it.

Re: Get better sleep – Anecdata and sleep tech

#14

Post by tayo42 »

Interesting, I don't like my morning routine but I'm not certain about what to do about it though. I usually get water, bathroom and scroll through apps or jump on my work laptop until I figure out something to do that day. I'm not sure how to effectively use the morning, but I feel like filling it with scrolling isn't ideal

Re: Get better sleep – Anecdata and sleep tech

#15

Post by elbigbad »

I’ve been using the WHOOP tracker for the last few months. Initially did some work to determine what my baseline was, but every morning you answer a journal (it’s most differentiating feature, imo) where you add things like alcohol, caffeine, melatonin, etc consumption and other things like airline travel, sleeping in same bed, etc.

After seeing what is correlated and not, I have had an extreme increase in sleep quality. Notably, melatonin doesn’t do much for me (I thought it did), working out less than 45 mins doesn’t have much correlation, lots of alcohol is inversely correlated with sleep (a surprise for me, always felt like it put me to sleep faster, which it seems to but st lower efficiency and quality). Plane travel kills my sleep, as does not sleeping in my own bed (hotels).

Overall, and anecdotally, highly recommend the approach of tracking things. Also highly recommend a WHOOP[1] activity monitor device, which is free itself (but data subscription). One particularly interesting thing is it doesn’t take into account weather, though it seems like that could be low correlation since I sleep in climate controlled environment.

Interestingly, more anecdata, a friend found out they had Covid before they were able to test positive based on whoop data changing. I realize I may sound like an advertisement, but I have zero affiliation, just very satisfied.

[1] https://www.whoop.com/

Re: Get better sleep – Anecdata and sleep tech

#16

Post by coding123 »

Want sleep advice? Build physical things and do manual labor. I hauled 10 tons of gravel today and my wife and I chopped up a 15 ft diameter bush and put it in our trailer to be taken to the green waste tomorrow. Tomorrow digging holes for a small shed foundation.

Of course that you may not have the same problem we do but we have a 14 pound maine coon that walks all over us when we sleep at random hours of the night. That part doesn't help.

Re: Get better sleep – Anecdata and sleep tech

#17

Post by ajolly »

tatrajim wrote: post #7

Using a sleep tracker for the past year, one discovery has been that on days I practice reduced caloric intake (usually twice a week), my deep sleep increases and my average heart rate drops. Perhaps dedicated fasters have assembled even more such data? I keep expecting the connection between calorie restriction and better sleep to be explored in research, but have not seen any to date.

I've seen a similar trend by not eating later in the day

Re: Get better sleep – Anecdata and sleep tech

#18

Post by westoncb »

I feel like any kind of sleep tracking app could only make things worse for my own situation (which I'm guessing is not particularly uncommon), the root of which seems to be around making too much of a big deal about sleep, getting increasingly anxious as I fail to fall asleep, not being able to help but monitor whether I am falling asleep or not etc.

When I sleep best are the nights I forget to be concerned about it. Typically once something important comes up (job interview, date, etc.) I remember what a problem inability to sleep has been for me in the past, how it could ruin it all—then it might be another month or two where I'm unable to "forget," lay awake for hours concerned about being unable to sleep.

My intuition around tracking is that anything big enough to make a real impact you'd already be aware of. The further micro-optimizing feels good mostly 'cause you've opted into thinking in a framework of sleep optimization so it's goal accomplishment in that context, but probably not a big improvement strictly on a physiological basis.

(Or maybe I'm completely wrong and just grumpy I can't find a good solution to my sleep issues :)

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