One Ring to rule them all

As I write this article, the world is conkers-deep in the covid pandemic, and so I am stuck at home under lockdown for the time being. As part of this, I’ve taken the glut of free-time to revisit my approach to exercise, food and how I look after myself in general.

To track my sleep and activity, I thought I would invest in a wearable data logger. So, after a bit of research, I settled on the Oura ring, which is unobtrusive to use (I tend to wear a thumb ring most days anyway), plus collects a lot of data (with a level of accuracy) that other wearables simply can’t match.

My general perception of the way I sleep is that I feel like I sleep deeply, that within a few minutes of going to bed I am out-cold, and that when I wake in the morning it is mostly naturally (I wake before the alarm), and I very rarely remember any dreams.

I’ve only had it a week so far, so this isn’t a comprehensive article by any means, but the initial observations from the data for my own personal sleep habits are:

•  My sleep profile shows that the majority of my deep and REM sleep is front-loaded in my sleep pattern, which explains why when I wake, there is little to remember.    

• I used to wonder whether those occasional listless nights (where I remembered waking a collection of times and had the impression of lying awake for a long time) were more an aspect of memory, rather than a factor of actually being awake. The data shows that for me I tend to wake a few times during the night, but generally don’t remember it. And even when I do remember and it seems like I was laying awake for ages, actually it was only a few minutes before I was back asleep again and it is mostly just skewed perception.

• I have always been told that I fall asleep quickly (my perception also backed this up, but as mentioned above my perception isn’t entirely accurate), but the reality is that the data also supports that I am out in less than 5mins on most nights. 

• The popular opinion often states that meditation is more restful than sleep, and in this case the data actually supports this too (though obviously doesn’t involve REM or deep sleep states). 

• Alcohol messes up my sleep efficiency disproportionately: even a single measure of whiskey in the evening will make my resting heart rate take as long as 6 hrs to settle during sleep, as opposed to 2 hrs with no alcohol.

More observations as I gather better data…