I must say, it’s been a month like any other. Things other than sleep have preoccupied me. Weather. Work. The fam. Yea not in that order. I’ve been observing the No Screens Before Bedtime™ rule pretty religiously. Even to the point of being a bit doctrinaire. Especially since it would seem eliminating screens (or some other combination of factors) has netted me all of a minute and 20 seconds more deep sleep on average.
Where I thought maybe I was seeing a pattern of feeling happier after nights where I got deep sleep, I am pretty sure that’s not the case. Indeed I am realizing ‘feeling happier’ is quite subjective and I may not be the most reliable recorder.
I’m getting some good books read. And I used the occasion to get rid of my ancient clock radio. So it hasn’t been a total waste of time.
But frankly I’m ready to give up, move on or try something else.
The measurement device for example. The Garmin records quite a number of nights where I get no minutes of deep sleep. Zero. None. I can’t help but think that perhaps it’s a bit clumsy an instrument to be the source of data. From what I’ve read, there are better commercially available gismos out there for measuring sleep. I hesitate because of two things:
- I need another gadget in this house just a bit less than I need another pair of bike shorts
- I would have to start the experiment all over again
Or maybe control for another variable. Light for example. Maybe I could try sleeping with my blinds closed. But the evidence around this is even more ambiguous than blue screens.