Improving my sleep

Ben Finnben@finn.com

The problem

• Too long to get to sleep• Waking during night• Getting up late• Tired during day

The plan

• Find factors that can improve sleep– Medical web sites– Google Scholar

• Experiment to find which ones work for me

Factors I didn’t measure

• Good mattress & pillow• No TV/hi-fi/computer/phone in bedroom• Notepad by bed• Wind down before bedtime• Sleep on back, or right side

What I measured

• 21 factors• 6 sleep quality outcomes• Daily for 113 days• Using:– Sleep Cycle app– Paper & pen (by bed)– Excel

Food & drink in evening

• Dinner time– before 9pm / 9–10pm / after 10pm

• Alcohol• Caffeine• Banana• Hot milk• 5-HTP

Light

• Bright blue light– Philips goLITE– in daytime/early evening

• Orange light– glasses / f.lux

Distractions

• Dawn light• Noise– with/without earplugs

• Hot• Away from home• Stressed• Ill

Exercise & relaxation

• Gym– in morning/early evening

• Meditation• Relaxation exercises in bed

Sleep quality

• Bed time• Time taken to get to sleep• No. times & total time awake in night• Time I woke up & got up in morning• Sleep Cycle’s sleep quality %

Combined into: Sleep quality (0–10 scale)

Results

Dinner after 9pm

Dinner 9-10pm

Dinner after 10pm

Alcohol

Banana

Hot milk

5-HTP

goLITE (daytime)

goLITE (early eve)

Orange glasses

Noise (with earplugs)

Noise (no earplugs)

Hot

Away from home

Stressed

Ill

Gym (early eve)

Meditation

Relaxation exercises

-3 -2 -1 0 1

Effect on sleep quality (significance-adjusted mean change, 0-10 scale)

Bedtime 23:20

23:40

00:00

00:20

00:40

01:00

01:20

01:40

-3 -2 -1 0 1

Effect on sleep quality (significance-adjusted mean change, 0-10 scale)

What I learnt

• My sleep was harmed by:– Noise, stress, illness, going away, late nights

• Nothing helped my sleep much

But…!

Sleepio.com

• Online sleep improvement course• Found the specific solution for me

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Suggestions

• Wikihow.com• Sleepio.com

OR• Full statistical exercise– Gut feel unreliable– Lots of data, with & without each factor– Statistical significance