I have some initial conclusions from my ~2 weeks of sleep experiments.
- A pitch black room does increase my perceived sleep quality. I remember my dreams more and seem to have more dreams in general.
- The blue blocker sunglasses don’t seem to yield any meaningful result for me. This might be because of my current level of caffeine.
- Sleeping alone doesn’t seem to impact my quality of sleep either way.
- Sleeping with the Zeo itself interrupts my sleep. A bit of a heisenbug …
- Measuring my heart rate while I sleep also interrupts my sleep. However, it yielded some interesting results. While I sleep, I can see 3-5 peaks where my heart rate will temporarily jump from 43bpm to 75bpm… I assume these coincided with REM dreaming. I can’t get my heart rate monitor and the Zeo to sync up without exporting the data and re-importing it into a new system.
Here’s a run from while I was sleeping the other night.
I can’t perform extensive analysis on this just yet as I haven’t exported all the points.
My next big change is to quit caffeine again (I’m down to only 30mg) and then try to sleep without caffeine and wake up when I feel rested. I think I can migrate to bi-phasic sleep where I have a 5-6 hour core and then a 20 minute nap in the afternoon.
Part of this is confused by my rigorous athletic training which requires sleep for recovery.
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Spikes in the heart rate could also be attributed to sleep apnea. Doubtful given your physical condition, but possible. Measuring blood oxy level would verify.
I started following your blog for other reasons but your posts on sleep have made a diff in my life! who woulda thought? I bought blackout curtains & what a difference they make! I could not kick out the cats, and I haven’t gotten the glasses (but it sounds like you didn’t notice a diff w/them). All I did was change the curtains. It’s noticeable. I wake up feeling refreshed. These curtains also block out sound so that also helps. Got them at Bed Bath & Beyond. Not sure how they were *supposed* to attach to my curtains so I just stitched ‘em behind. it works.
I didn’t even know my quality of sleep was off. I just knew it was taking me longer to wake up & I needed more coffee.
thanks!
erin
Erin, that’s great.
I haven’t bought curtains yet… I’m still running with my ghetto garbage bags over the window.
It’s only been a week though but I’m definitely not going to go back to sleeping how I was before.
How much did you pay for the curtains?
I’m going to buy some here soon.