SLEEP. What’s all the fuss about?
Sometimes we forget that sleep actually takes up one-third of our lives. This time is essential for recovery - both physical and psychological - and must not be put to the side as an afterthought. Regardless of whether you are an athlete under immense training stress or a desk worker chasing critical deadlines, the stress we undergo must be balanced with adequate recovery; a nice follow on from our last blog post : https://www.infiniteperformance.com.au/blog/trainingrecovery
STAGES OF SLEEP
FACTORS AFFECTING SLEEP
Stress and anxiety.
Training and/or work schedule.
Poor sleep hygiene (behaviours/habits around sleep).
Noisy environment (e.g. young children, snoring partner, etc.)
Travel (i.e. difficulty sleeping on planes / jet lag).
Illness or injury.
HOW CAN I IMPROVE MY SLEEP?
WEARABLES AND SLEEP TRACKING
The wearable technology space is growing rapidly, with the likes of Apple, FitBit, Garmin, Oura, and Whoop all competing for our attention.
Whilst these devices show great promise in unlocking extremely interesting data points regarding our overall health, their accuracy in tracking sleep are still catching up, unfortunately.
Sleep is an extremely complex process involving many moving parts. Other than gold standard Polysomnography (PSG), which involves the measurement of brain dynamics, eye movements, muscle activity, heart physiology, and respiratory function, there is no real competitor that matches its accuracy (yet!). Currently, sleep trackers will typically see around 30-40% error in their measurements when identifying sleep versus wakefulness, and even greater error margins when reporting the actual stages of sleep.
However, it’s not all bad news.
Even though it may not be a good idea to trust these devices to the finer details and digits, they can still serve a great purpose. Firstly, the simple fact of making an individual aware of their health and/or sleep is a great start to building positive habits. And second to that, rather than focusing on the individual numbers each day, the trends over longer periods of time can still provide valuable insights into your sleep duration and quality. I guess at the end of the day, consistently inconsistent data will have to do for now…
…sweet dreams!