And a 3-step plan to build a good sleeping habit.
Scientists still need to understand exactly why humans need to sleep. But there is no doubt we need it.
Each of us may need more or less sleeping hours. For some people, seven hours is enough. Others need nine to restore. And your needs may differ based on your age and body.
Yet sometimes, we sacrifice sleeping hours in exchange for other things, saying we will recover them. But recovery is impossible, and those hours are lost forever. So building a healthy sleeping routine to help you get the rest you need is essential.
This year, I reached that goal thanks to my smartwatch. So here are seven surprising ways it improved my sleep quality. But first, let’s talk about sleep deprivation and why it is dangerous.
What is sleep deprivation?
Sleep deprivation is a condition caused by an inadequate quantity or quality of sleep, and one of its major causes is personal choices.
According to Watson N.F., an adult should sleep for seven or more hours each night. And even if most people know it, managing our sleep is challenging.
I struggled with sleeping for most of my life. When younger, I felt like I didn’t need to sleep that much. So I spent most of my nights playing video games with friends. I thought I could always sleep when I got older. But that moment never came in the past ten years. And I don’t think it will ever come.
When I was younger, I could deal with fatigue better. I had more spare energy I could use. But time changes everything.
- I was exhausted
- I couldn’t think clearly
- And my memory stopped working that well.
So fix your sleep now because you will never get back the hours you sacrificed. And if you continue, all those light annoyances could become serious health problems.
7 Surprising Ways My Smartwatch Improved My Sleep
One year ago, I felt like I was 80. But I was 26. So I decided to change something. I promised I would fix my sleeping routine. And thanks to my smartwatch, I improved my sleep quality in at least seven surprising ways.
1 — Build a habit
I have a sleeping habit now, and I always go to bed at 11 p.m. and wake up at 6 a.m. Of course, I still hang out with friends from time to time. Isolated cheat days happen, but not every night.
When you get to sleep at a fixed hour, your body already expects it. So you will fall asleep faster because it becomes part of your circadian rhythm.
Also, wake up at the same time. This way, your body will always feel the same tiredness in the evening. So sleeping will be even more accessible.
2 — Read before bedtime
Have you ever wondered why reading causes tiredness?
When you read, your mind will work with imagination, as when you dream. Your body will relax while distancing itself from your problems. And it will become easier to fall asleep.
When my smartwatch suggested I should read in the evening, I didn’t work at first because I was reading non-fiction books. But the more your brain uses imagination, the easier your body will fall. So pick your books with care and build a reading habit before bedtime.
3 — Take a shower
The warm bath effect is a group of benefits that hot showers could give you, and sleeping is one of them.
During sleep, your body will regulate the body temperature cooling it down. And taking a hot shower at least one hour before bedtime will stimulate your blood flow to the hands and feet. Your body temperature will decrease, and you will sleep faster and better.
4 — Dump screen time
Every scientist seems to hate blue light. But why? To discover it, we need to dive deeper into our sleep-wake cycles.
Since our ancestors needed to stay awake and vigilant during the day, their bodies evolved to inhibit melatonin secretion if exposed to light. Melatonin is a hormone that helps our body understand when it’s time to sleep. Your brain produces it when exposed to the dark, and its secretion causes fatigue and sleepiness.
So until sunlight was our only light exposure, everything worked fine. But then artificial light appeared, and melatonin started to lack. And with blue light, the light of digital screens, the effect almost doubled.
Therefore, dumping screen time at least one hour before bedtime is necessary to allow your body to produce more melatonin and sleep faster.
5 — Avoid large meals or alcohol
There are at least two reasons you don’t want to eat large meals close to bedtime:
- your digestion can affect your sleep quality, so you won’t rest as you should
- and consuming a lot of food before sleep could also lead to obesity.
But the problems of eating late in the evening are many more.
For alcohol, instead, the problem is different. Alcohol can disrupt your sleep architecture. So instead of following the natural phases of deeper and lighter sleep, your body may interrupt those patterns because of alcohol. You may wake up many times, need to go to the bathroom or to drink, and your sleep quality will suffer.
But if you avoid consuming large meals and alcohol, your sleep will get interrupted less, and you will sleep better.
6 — Exercise
Imagine having a day full of commitments. You have to walk a lot, stress your body, and finish complex tasks that require a lot of thinking.
Now imagine you don’t do anything all day. You stay at home watching tv series and eating.
In which of the two evenings will you get to sleep faster?
I think I proved my point.
So if you think you are not getting enough fatigue during the day, at least go for a walk.
For example, I am a developer. I have a sedentary job and don’t spend too much energy during the day. So if I want to fall asleep faster in the evening, I need to exercise and go to the gym.
You can do the same, or you can choose another strategy. But you will not fall asleep if you don’t spend enough energy during the day.
7 — Sleep in the dark
You already know how melatonin impacts the wake/sleep cycle. So besides avoiding blue light, and light in general, you should also take care of your sleep environment to improve its quality.
If you sleep in the dark, your body will produce melatonin, fall asleep faster, and sleep better. But if your environment has many lights, you will struggle to fall asleep, and your sleeping patterns will get interrupted more.
Therefore, focus on your environment and make it as dark as possible. The best options would be roller shutters for your windows. But if you don’t have them, use dark curtains and try to sleep in the night.
How did my smartwatch helped improve my sleep?
Reading the benefits, you may have wondered how did my smartwatch ever help me build a reading routine? And you would be right.
My smartwatch did not suggest all those habits. I searched and developed them. But my smartwatch helped me understand the importance of sleep, and it helped me build a habit of going to sleep and waking up at the same hours.
It helped me realize sleep was fundamental to my health. And every time I was making bad choices, it reminded me I shouldn’t. It was a sleeping coach. And it developed for me a three-step plan you can follow by yourself.
The 3-Step Plan to Build a Good Sleeping Habit
You don’t need a smartwatch to build a good sleeping habit. But if you have one, you could use its data to track your improvements and experiment with different sleeping routines.
For example, my smartwatch measured three sleep phases:
- light sleep should be around 50–60% of your sleeping hours
- Deep sleep takes 10–25% of your sleep
- and the remaining 20–25% should be REM (rapid eye movement)
Our body recovers more during REM and deep sleep, so focus on increasing their length. But, of course, you should also sleep enough hours (at least seven for adults).
So how did my smartwatch improve my sleep? Here’s the three-step plan I followed for 21 nights.
1 — Correction phase
The first seven days of the program were the correction phase. The goal was to fix two hours for going to sleep and waking up. But there was a limitation — I had to sleep between six and nine hours.
In both cases, your body will be exhausted and confused. So keep your sleeping hours in that range.
Also, I had to define some of the sleeping routines I wanted to try to improve my sleep quality. So I listed the seven habits I linked above and introduced them slowly for the first seven nights.
The plan was to go to bed at 11 p.m. and wake up at 6 a.m. every night.
2 — Training phase
The following seven days were the training phase, which was the critical part of the plan because it helped me form the habit.
During the correction phase, I learned how to go to sleep and wake up at the same hours every day. But sometimes I struggled, so I needed to find the correct sequence of habits to help me fall asleep around 11 p.m.
Controlling the eagerness to stay late is the worst part of this phase. You are motivated to improve your sleep during the first days, so it doesn’t bother you. But then you feel you are missing wake hours you could spend doing other things. So you must deal with the fear of missing out and control your actions.
Reading about sleeping routines, cycles, and how they worked helped me tame my hunger for wake hours. So I tried to build the perfect sleeping routine for my body and mind.
3 — Stabilization phase
The first 14 days are the worst. You wish to do things you shouldn’t, and it takes a lot of willpower to resist temptations.
But it gets easier as soon as you learn to enter a relaxed state of mind and control your impulses.
During the stabilization phase, you must solidify your new habit. And the risk of a relapse is still high. But if you resist until the 21st day, it will get progressively easier.
Around the 17th day, I started yawning around 10 p.m. And the transition into sleeping got easier.
I could only read up to 10–20 pages of my book, and I was good as gone. And at 6 a.m. I was feeling better than ever. Most times, I didn’t even need to set an alarm because my body learned to wake up at the same hours every day.
Final Thoughts
The 7 Surprising Ways My Smartwatch Improved My Sleep Quality
And a 3-step plan to build a good sleeping habit.
Scientists still need to understand exactly why humans need to sleep. But there is no doubt we need it.
Each of us may need more or less sleeping hours. For some people, seven hours is enough. Others need nine to restore. And your needs may differ based on your age and body.
Yet sometimes, we sacrifice sleeping hours in exchange for other things, saying we will recover them. But recovery is impossible, and those hours are lost forever. So building a healthy sleeping routine to help you get the rest you need is essential.
This year, I reached that goal thanks to my smartwatch. So here are seven surprising ways it improved my sleep quality. But first, let’s talk about sleep deprivation and why it is dangerous.
What is sleep deprivation?
Sleep deprivation is a condition caused by an inadequate quantity or quality of sleep, and one of its major causes is personal choices.
According to Watson N.F., an adult should sleep for seven or more hours each night. And even if most people know it, managing our sleep is challenging.
I struggled with sleeping for most of my life. When younger, I felt like I didn’t need to sleep that much. So I spent most of my nights playing video games with friends. I thought I could always sleep when I got older. But that moment never came in the past ten years. And I don’t think it will ever come.
When I was younger, I could deal with fatigue better. I had more spare energy I could use. But time changes everything.
- I was exhausted
- I couldn’t think clearly
- And my memory stopped working that well.
So fix your sleep now because you will never get back the hours you sacrificed. And if you continue, all those light annoyances could become serious health problems.
7 Ways My Smartwatch Improved My Sleep
One year ago, I felt like I was 80. But I was 26. So I decided to change something. I promised I would fix my sleeping routine. And thanks to my smartwatch, I improved my sleep quality in at least seven surprising ways.
1 — Build a habit
I have a sleeping habit now, and I always go to bed at 11 p.m. and wake up at 6 a.m. Of course, I still hang out with friends from time to time. Isolated cheat days happen, but not every night.
When you get to sleep at a fixed hour, your body already expects it. So you will fall asleep faster because it becomes part of your circadian rhythm.
Also, wake up at the same time. This way, your body will always feel the same tiredness in the evening. So sleeping will be even more accessible.
2 — Read before bedtime
Have you ever wondered why reading causes tiredness?
When you read, your mind will work with imagination, as when you dream. Your body will relax while distancing itself from your problems. And it will become easier to fall asleep.
When my smartwatch suggested I should read in the evening, I didn’t work at first because I was reading non-fiction books. But the more your brain uses imagination, the easier your body will fall. So pick your books with care and build a reading habit before bedtime.
3 — Take a shower
The warm bath effect is a group of benefits that hot showers could give you, and sleeping is one of them.
During sleep, your body will regulate the body temperature cooling it down. And taking a hot shower at least one hour before bedtime will stimulate your blood flow to the hands and feet. Your body temperature will decrease, and you will sleep faster and better.
4 — Dump screen time
Every scientist seems to hate blue light. But why? To discover it, we need to dive deeper into our sleep-wake cycles.
Since our ancestors needed to stay awake and vigilant during the day, their bodies evolved to inhibit melatonin secretion if exposed to light. Melatonin is a hormone that helps our body understand when it’s time to sleep. Your brain produces it when exposed to the dark, and its secretion causes fatigue and sleepiness.
So until sunlight was our only light exposure, everything worked fine. But then artificial light appeared, and melatonin started to lack. And with blue light, the light of digital screens, the effect almost doubled.
Therefore, dumping screen time at least one hour before bedtime is necessary to allow your body to produce more melatonin and sleep faster.
5 — Avoid large meals or alcohol
There are at least two reasons you don’t want to eat large meals close to bedtime:
- your digestion can affect your sleep quality, so you won’t rest as you should
- and consuming a lot of food before sleep could also lead to obesity.
But the problems of eating late in the evening are many more.
For alcohol, instead, the problem is different. Alcohol can disrupt your sleep architecture. So instead of following the natural phases of deeper and lighter sleep, your body may interrupt those patterns because of alcohol. You may wake up many times, need to go to the bathroom or to drink, and your sleep quality will suffer.
But if you avoid consuming large meals and alcohol, your sleep will get interrupted less, and you will sleep better.
6 — Exercise
Imagine having a day full of commitments. You have to walk a lot, stress your body, and finish complex tasks that require a lot of thinking.
Now imagine you don’t do anything all day. You stay at home watching tv series and eating.
In which of the two evenings will you get to sleep faster?
I think I proved my point.
So if you think you are not getting enough fatigue during the day, at least go for a walk.
For example, I am a developer. I have a sedentary job and don’t spend too much energy during the day. So if I want to fall asleep faster in the evening, I need to exercise and go to the gym.
You can do the same, or you can choose another strategy. But you will not fall asleep if you don’t spend enough energy during the day.
7 — Sleep in the dark
You already know how melatonin impacts the wake/sleep cycle. So besides avoiding blue light, and light in general, you should also take care of your sleep environment to improve its quality.
If you sleep in the dark, your body will produce melatonin, fall asleep faster, and sleep better. But if your environment has many lights, you will struggle to fall asleep, and your sleeping patterns will get interrupted more.
Therefore, focus on your environment and make it as dark as possible. The best options would be roller shutters for your windows. But if you don’t have them, use dark curtains and try to sleep in the night.
How did my smartwatch helped improve my sleep?
Reading the benefits, you may have wondered how did my smartwatch ever help me build a reading routine? And you would be right.
My smartwatch did not suggest all those habits. I searched and developed them. But my smartwatch helped me understand the importance of sleep, and it helped me build a habit of going to sleep and waking up at the same hours.
It helped me realize sleep was fundamental to my health. And every time I was making bad choices, it reminded me I shouldn’t. It was a sleeping coach. And it developed for me a three-step plan you can follow by yourself.
The 3-Step Plan to Build a Good Sleeping Habit
You don’t need a smartwatch to build a good sleeping habit. But if you have one, you could use its data to track your improvements and experiment with different sleeping routines.
For example, my smartwatch measured three sleep phases:
- light sleep should be around 50–60% of your sleeping hours
- Deep sleep takes 10–25% of your sleep
- and the remaining 20–25% should be REM (rapid eye movement)
Our body recovers more during REM and deep sleep, so focus on increasing their length. But, of course, you should also sleep enough hours (at least seven for adults).
So how did my smartwatch improve my sleep? Here’s the three-step plan I followed for 21 nights.
1 — Correction phase
The first seven days of the program were the correction phase. The goal was to fix two hours for going to sleep and waking up. But there was a limitation — I had to sleep between six and nine hours.
In both cases, your body will be exhausted and confused. So keep your sleeping hours in that range.
Also, I had to define some of the sleeping routines I wanted to try to improve my sleep quality. So I listed the seven habits I linked above and introduced them slowly for the first seven nights.
The plan was to go to bed at 11 p.m. and wake up at 6 a.m. every night.
2 — Training phase
The following seven days were the training phase, which was the critical part of the plan because it helped me form the habit.
During the correction phase, I learned how to go to sleep and wake up at the same hours every day. But sometimes I struggled, so I needed to find the correct sequence of habits to help me fall asleep around 11 p.m.
Controlling the eagerness to stay late is the worst part of this phase. You are motivated to improve your sleep during the first days, so it doesn’t bother you. But then you feel you are missing wake hours you could spend doing other things. So you must deal with the fear of missing out and control your actions.
Reading about sleeping routines, cycles, and how they worked helped me tame my hunger for wake hours. So I tried to build the perfect sleeping routine for my body and mind.
3 — Stabilization phase
The first 14 days are the worst. You wish to do things you shouldn’t, and it takes a lot of willpower to resist temptations.
But it gets easier as soon as you learn to enter a relaxed state of mind and control your impulses.
During the stabilization phase, you must solidify your new habit. And the risk of a relapse is still high. But if you resist until the 21st day, it will get progressively easier.
Around the 17th day, I started yawning around 10 p.m. And the transition into sleeping got easier.
I could only read up to 10–20 pages of my book, and I was good as gone. And at 6 a.m. I was feeling better than ever. Most times, I didn’t even need to set an alarm because my body learned to wake up at the same hours every day.
Final Thoughts
Spending one-third of your life sleeping is a lot of time.
I know.
But sleeping has a fundamental role in our health. And sacrificing it for a few more wake hours is not convenient.
You will have time to watch your favorite Netflix show tomorrow. Nobody will delete it, and you can recover it whenever you want. But you cannot recover your sleep because lost sleeping hours are gone forever.
So try to build a healthy sleeping routine. Sleep at least seven hours per night and build good habits to help you rest well.
My smart watch improved my sleep quality in seven surprising ways I would have never expected. But you don’t need a smartwatch. You can do it all by yourself.
Set a fixed sleeping routine, and keep it for at least 21 days. That’s all.
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Cover photo by Amy Treasure from Unsplash for The 7 Surprising Ways My Smartwatch Improved My Sleep Quality.