Does a sleep tracker improve your sleep quality?

*This is a sponsored post written in collaboration with Time 4 Sleep

How did I get on?

As a bit of a background, Mr H and I go to bed around midnight and during the week when I work, I am up at 6.30, so I usually have around 6 hours of sleep. This increases to around 8/9 hours at the weekend.

On the first few days of using the Fitbit to track sleep, I found that I was only getting around 5 hours of sleep and spent up to an hour or so having restless sleep. I’m a heavy sleeper, so it was interesting to see these results as I don’t remember moving around in bed or stirring much.

The week with the sleep tracker

It’s recommended that adults have between 7-9 hours sleep each night, I knew before even starting the challenge that during the week at least, I was not getting the recommended amount of Zzzzs. I found the prompts about heading to bed useful from the Fitbit, and it would remind me that I would need to start finishing up whatever I was doing and to start winding down for bed. The sleep insights with tips were also interesting to read and take on board.

The week without a sleep tracker

For the week without the sleep tracker, I made sure I implemented some tried and tested ways of ensuring my body was ready for sleep by bedtime by going to bed at the same time each night and waking up at the same time. I also made sure there was no screen usage after a certain time too and resisted checking the time if I stirred during the night.

Stress can be one of the main causes of sleep deprivation – small niggles in your work day that are playing on your mind for example. There’s some really useful information in the Relaxation zone of the Time 4 Sleep website with advice and tips on how you can get help managing stress.

The results

Comparing side-by-side the week with the use of the sleep tracker versus without one, I genuinely didn’t find much difference in the quality of sleep I was getting. Having said that, I did notice that I was falling asleep within 10-15 minutes when I had the traditional sleep methods in place compared to around half an hour with the sleep tracker. However, having the sleep tracker meant I was able to confirm a restless night’s sleep and could see visually how many sleep hours I was getting.

This challenge has made me realise that I need to be getting at least a couple more hours of sleep a night and that I should be heading to bed around 10.30pm to achieve optimum sleep! I would love to do this at least a 2-3 times a week so will make an effort to wind down and relax more in the evenings rather than working on my laptop.

Thank you to Time 4 Sleep for tasking me with this challenge, I found it really interesting to be able to analyse my sleep pattern in detail.

If you’re interested to read more about different way’s to get a good nights sleep, finding more about sleep debt or how you can treat insomnia – head over to the Time 4 Sleep blog they have some interesting posts that are worth reading.

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12 Comments

Fiona Cambouropoulos
8th December 2018 at 11:56 pm · Reply

I think I would worry just how little sleep I get if I used one of these. Fascinating though #KCACOLS
- Maria
  10th December 2018 at 3:08 pm · Reply
  
  This is why my husband would rather not track his sleep. He was getting more stressed seeing how little sleep he was actually getting so ignorance was bliss for him!
Typical Mummy
10th December 2018 at 4:10 pm · Reply

I could do with trying one of these!! Although the results would probably scare me!! #KCACOLS
- Maria
  14th January 2019 at 11:42 am · Reply
  
  I found the results really interesting!
Carol Cameleon
12th December 2018 at 8:14 pm · Reply

I find this fascinating and gotta to be honest, I wouldn’t want to do this challenge because I know I don’t get enough sleep, never mind enough quality sleep! I do make a real effort to read an actual book before bed though, rest my eyes and chill out properly. #kcacols
Ali Duke
13th December 2018 at 11:34 am · Reply

I have a FitBit but I rarely wear it at night. I don’t sleep very well, this is mostly due to depression and anxiety that have taken over my life at the moment. I have found that switching my laptop/phone off earlier and reading for a bit before I go to sleep helps a bit. Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next time.
Jeremy@ThirstyDaddy
14th December 2018 at 7:50 pm · Reply

I used something like this as part of a sponsored campaign with Sleeptracker and found that their was a benefit, not necessarily from the information I was getting but just the overall extra awareness that I had about my sleep habits. #KCACOLS
Cassie
16th December 2018 at 10:24 am · Reply

This is interesting. I can see how much sleep I’ve had and how my body changes through stress, breathing and temp with the Ava bracelet. It’s interesting and sometimes shocking. Do you know what the significance is of not checking the time of you wake in the night? #KCACOLS
Lana
16th December 2018 at 4:50 pm · Reply

I think I would be too stressed about thinking about sleep…lol. 🙂 Interesting to read about though. Thanks for sharing. #KCACOLS
- Maria
  14th January 2019 at 11:51 am · Reply
  
  Sometimes it is better just to not know isn’t it? My husband found this as he’s not a great sleeper anyway so seeing the results in black and white made it worse for him!
Crummy Mummy
4th January 2019 at 11:57 am · Reply

This is so interesting! I have always steered clear of having a Fitbit for the precise reason of not wanting to know how much (or little) sleep I get. As a breastfeeding mama I know it’s not enough! #KCACOLS
- Maria
  14th January 2019 at 12:10 pm · Reply
  
  Ahhh you never have enough sleep when you have little ones!