Sleep Hygiene
Sleep Hygiene refers to habits that help you have a good night's sleep. Sleep problems such as insomnia are often caused or made worse by bad habits. Sleep Hygiene appears on the Clock view, and you can tap into each of the consistency and efficiency sections to learn more.
On the Today tab you can monitor your Sleep Consistency each day. Refer to the Sleep Consistency Tile page in the Today section to understand more, including how to change the display from 7 day trends to last night compares.
Consistency Report
AutoSleep helps make you aware of your sleep/wake patterns so you can easily notice if you are developing bad habits and address them. A Consistency Report shows horizontal bars that make it easy to see at a glance your bedtime and waketime over the past week but also compare this to 7 day and 28 day averages.
Note the yellow bars let you easily compare the current day to previous weeks. For example, if today was Tuesday the yellow bars will highlight Tuesday today, the Tuesday 7 days ago, the Tuesday 14 days ago and the Tuesday 21 days ago. See below:
Tip: If you are in sleep debt, you should aim to pay that back as this will greatly help you then achieve sleep consistency.
Sleep Efficiency
Sleep efficiency is the ratio of time asleep versus time spent in bed. A sleep efficiency rating of 85% or higher is considered normal. Above 90% is good. However, close to 100% can indicate that a person is fatigued and not getting enough sleep for their sleep needs.
Efficient sleep usually leads to a higher amount of quality sleep and deeper sleep.
To get the most accurate sleep efficiency rating using AutoSleep it is recommended that you use the Lights Off feature to track the time that it takes you to fall asleep.
Improving Sleep Efficiency
Aside from sleep/wake consistency, there are a number of things you can do to improve your sleep efficiency:
Try to exercise each day, but not too close to your bedtime. Being 'physically' tired and not just mentally tired can have tremendous benefits on your sleep quality.
Avoid getting into sleep debt.
Limit screen time and bright lights just before going to sleep.
Try to regulate the temperature of the bedroom.
Try to clear your mind of worry before attempting to go to sleep. Sometimes it is better to spend some time going through concerns earlier in the evening, and maybe even writing down a plan of action. This can help 'shelve' the thoughts.
Alcohol may help you doze off, but it does disturb your sleep patterns. You'll notice the impact on your heart rate in AutoSleep's sleep analysis graph.
Invest in a good bed. You spend a large portion of your life in it.
Try to avoid doing mentally stimulating activities before bedtime. Try to mentally switch off for an hour before bedtime. AutoSleep's bedtime reminders are quite useful for this.
Avoid stimulants such as coffee, tea and (sadly) chocolate close to bedtime.
Try and get some early morning sunshine. Exposure to light helps reset your body clock.
Pay close attention to the Sleep Consistency tile on the Today tab.