Sleep Assessments and Sleep Tracking

Sleep Tracking

Now that we have excluded or treated the disorders above that are related to sleep, it is time to begin evaluating your sleeping pattern and using that to improve your sleep.  There are myriad ways to track sleep available on the market today and new ones are coming out all of the time.  In our program, we use a popular ring called an “Oura Ring”.  The ring has biosensors lining the inside of it and it is capable of tracking movement, heart rate and oxygen level.  The ring (like many commercially available sleep tracking devices) is able to give significant amounts of information about elements of sleep that relate to quality such as restlessness, amount of deep/REM sleep, duration and timing.

Sleep Tracking Device Measurements

Sleep trackers are mostly capable of measuring all of the elements described below:

·         Total Sleep

·         Efficiency:  The time in bed vs time asleep.  If efficiency is poor, you may be laying in bed and destroying your sleep drive for the next day. You may also have an issue with sleep anxiety.

·         Restfulness:  If restfulness is poor, you might have:

o   Eaten right before bed

o   Drank caffeine too late in the day

o   Drank alcohol within 3 hours of sleep

o   Be upset by something stressful in your life

o   Been dealing with urinary issues.

o   Be going through menopause.

·         REM Sleep:  Involved in creativity and an important part of overall sleep.  It is your mind’s way of trying to work things out for you.  Can be affected by anything that disturbs sleep and is particularly sensitive to alcohol.

·         Deep Sleep:  The most restorative form of sleep physically and mentally.  Very important for feeling rested and restored the next day.  Goes down with age and can be affected by anything that disturbs sleep.

·         Latency:  Another way to determine if you went to bed at the right time.  If latency is high, you may have gotten in bed at the wrong time or too early.  We always say go to sleep when you are tired but not before your appointed sleep time.

·         Timing:  Most sleep trackers have a nice feature that allows you to look at timing of sleep.  It will give you an ideal midpoint for your sleep and help you determine if you are before, after or right on that appropriate midpoint. 

The second part of the sleep tool allows you look at the “architecture” of your sleep. In other words, when you look at the timing of onset of sleep and the amounts of deep, REM and light sleep throughout the night, you can get an idea about sleep quality. In general, most of your deep sleep will occur in the first half of the night and most of your REM sleep will occur in the second half of the night.