My experience with beeminding sleep

[aad]

Sleep has been tricky for me—falling asleep, staying asleep, and waking up rested have all been a struggle for a few years now. It’s time to focus on getting the rest I need and making lasting improvements.

Thankfully, I’ve carved out some time for myself, giving me the flexibility to experiment with my sleep schedule, among other things. It’s a great opportunity to learn and build better habits.

Living alone makes it tricky, though—it’s easy to lose sync with society when I have few obligations before 11 a.m. most days. Plus, sleep isn’t exactly an easy topic to dive into with friends in my experience.

I’m starting this thread to share how I’m tackling (well, will be trying to tackle) this with Beeminder. I may also share any other insights I pick up along the way!

[lambo]

I can’t recommend the Beeminder Oura integration enough if you have / can afford one of their rings.

I got a pretty big win in my Resilience score (closely tied to HR & HRV during sleep) by enforcing certain behaviors (also via Beeminder), and could then be pretty confident about the cause by just comparing the graphs side by side.

Also just the fact that I’m setting a bar to hit means that I need to keep it charged and generally check the app daily, which makes me more aware of my sleep.

I can’t remember the last time I worked until 3 or 4 am, which I used to do every 1-3 weeks in the past.

[shanaqui]

My HR and HRV during sleep are consistently awful, so I’d be curious what goals you set up, if you’re game to share! Was it just getting a bit more sleep, or sleep-timing, or was there something else…?

(I have anxiety, so my HR and HRV are consistently awful in general, but… surely one can still find improvements, right?!)

[vivgui]

I’m actually beeminder waking up early with my Oura ring. I’m a night owl, and it’s very easy for me to stay up, so waking up early consistently has always been challengin, especially with a remote job. So I set a goal that every weekday (so 5/7) I need to wake up and start my day before 10am.

I wrote a script that grabs the wake up time from the Oura API, checks if it was before 10am then turns it into an RSS and I feed that to my Beeminder goal. I added an auto ratchet to 2 days in case I need a “cheat” day just in case.

This has been tremendously helpful, especially because you cannot “cheat” with the Oura ring. For example if you wake up at 7am, be awake 20m then go back to sleep and wake up again at 10am, the ring will set your real wake up time at 10am.

I have been beeminding this for a few weeks now and I’m actually not that groggy when my alarm sounds now (8am). Also stopped hitting snooze!

[aad]

I thought about getting an Oura ring when it integrated with Beeminder but couldn’t justify the cost. I will reconsider, though not anytime soon!

@lambo

I got a pretty big win in my Resilience score (closely tied to HR & HRV during sleep) by enforcing certain behaviors (also via Beeminder), and could then be pretty confident about the cause by just comparing the graphs side by side.

I’m curious how you approached this, too!

I have Apple Health data on HR/HRV but I don’t know what I can learn from that about my sleep.

@vivgui

I’m actually beeminder waking up early with my Oura ring.

Glad to hear it’s going well! Hope it stays that way for you!

[aad]

My goal is to feel more rested and energized overall.

Step 1: Sleep Regularity

This feels like the easiest starting point since I can control it directly.

Dating and single life can make it tricky sometimes, so I’ll allow the occasional irregular night for now.

Here’s my sleep data from the past week (no older data yet):

Week 50, December 9-15

Success Criteria

Consistency

Success: I’ve gone to sleep between 23:00–23:30.

I’ll track this using Sleep Cycle, starting tracking when I turn off the light.

I set up a bednight goal to track “hours before midnight” long-term. I needed it because I kept skipping taking a good look at Sleep Cycle’s UI.

Routine

Success: I’ve gone to bed between 22:00-22:30.

This ties into my reading goal since I want to relax and get sleepy by reading in bed. For now, I’ve copy-pasted the setup from bednight to a new goal: bedread.

Difficulties falling asleep

Success: Write a brief sentence about the issue and brainstorm ideas to try next week.

Nap Tracking

Success: Share a screenshot of my nap spreadsheet.

[aad]

Week 50, December 9-15 recap

2 out of 3 days since my previous update, I ended up prioritizing dating and social commitments in the evenings above sleep.

This isn’t what I wanted, so I get a .

Regularity

This meant that my bedread and bednight goals didn’t get any meaningful data, either.

Consistency

Routine

Difficulties falling asleep

Most noticeable cause of difficulty is that I get carried away in thoughts.

It helps to read in bed and if necessary being explicitly mindful seem to help.

Nap tracking

Taking notes as I intended.

Misc

• I keep waking up around 07:15, before my alarm.
• I got to test iOS shortcuts for Beeminder goals. They felt easy to use. That’s good!

Plan for Week 51, December 16-22

Focus: Sleep Regularity

I want to see if establishing the regularity around 07:30 would help. My phone is now aware that I want to sleep between to 23:00-07:30

Consistency

Changed bednight slope to 1.25 to help me go to sleep between 22:30-23:00

Routine

Changed bedread slope to 1.75 to help me start reading in bed 22:00-22:30

Difficulties falling asleep

Commitment: A sentence on whether any other difficulty pops up, once I’m consistent with the sleep window and my routine.

Nap tracking

Commitment: Keep napping (take even more naps) nad keep tracking.

Misc

I do expect some irregular nights, I’d like to not introduce any other:

• 15/12 → 16/12. I don’t expect to make my schedule at all due to a date.
• 17/12 → 18/12, this will be difficult so I need to watch out.
• (And perhaps one more evening.)

Commitment: I’d like to see if I can do at least a bit better with these irregularities. I should have some notes by next week. (Thinking in line of saying no to social invites, getting into a bedtime routine with the person I’m dating, etc.)

[aad]

(recap) Week 51, December 16-22

Focus: Sleep Regularity

Summary

This week wasn’t great for sleep—my sleep regularity hasn’t improved, and staying asleep has become a new challenge.

I think this has to do something with the warmth, although I haven’t really changed anything and outside temperatures have been rather consistent, too.

While I’m still puzzling with that, I need to figure out: how can I recover after waking up at night? Ideally, I’d just fall back asleep, but I’m open to finding a way to live with this “sleep problem” if needed.

I delivered on my “regularity commitment”: 4/7 nights have data for both goals

– I’ve kept my commitments. Other problems surfaced.

Details

For several days, I’ve woken up around 2:00 AM. I tried:

• Mindfully relaxing to fall back asleep
• Reading to get sleepy again

But after 1-2 hours of no luck, I just “started my day.” Later, after tackling some tasks, I got sleepy and caught a few more hours of rest.

Sleep Cycle has messed up the daily graph big time Here’s analternative:

Consistency

bednight now tracks 1 hour per day, focusing on being in bed before 23:00.

– I’ve kept my commitment, but not being able to stay sleep has been a challenge.

Routine

bedread is now set to 1.5 hours daily.

Difficulties falling asleep

Now needed clarification: I meant this specifically about falling asleep for the first time…

No difficulties falling asleep for the first time. If I have 3 more weeks like this one, I’ll either drop this header.

I’m happy with this.

Nap tracking

I’m happy with this. May want to take more naps next week.

Misc.

iOS shortcuts for data entry are working smoothly, for both Beeminder goals.

I’ve set a calendar reminder to help transition from the previous activity to bedtime. It’s a great nudge. It helps shift from active to calm in a purposeful way. This feels just right. (Unless it’s somehow leading to the interruption I experience at night!).

Commitment

I think temperature might be interrupting my sleep. I want to either have fixed it, or note my findings here.

[aad]

Week 52, December 23-29

Focus: Sleep Regularity

Summary

This week was good, but not great (Also, last week must’ve been an orange circle!).

My sleep is more regular, and I’m happy with my effort.

Temperature seems to indeed matter for staying asleep—I adjusted blankets, windows, and heating. I believe it helped.

Sometimes, an anxious-busy mind keeps me up when I’m trying to fall asleep. I’d like to handle that better.

Details

Sleep Cycle reports 86% consistency (+11% from last week).

Still, there were long awake periods during the night (ignoring short ones, which I believe are normal in healthy sleep patterns).

Apple Health shows these more clearly:

Consistency

This week, my bednight goal did nudge me to be careful about keeping a consistent bedtime—I happily obliged!

Routine

Almost become a Beemergency, but I reacted on time! Grateful for the nudge to adjust and stay on track.

Difficulties falling asleep

This week, I fell asleep easily 6 out of 7 evenings. One night, I felt anxious and couldn’t settle my mind.

I’ll count this as week 2 of 3 for success but marking it yellow to stay mindful—an anxious night could happen again.

Nap tracking

I need more nap days. I realize the difficulty here is emotional, so I’ll mark it orange—it needs some attention.

Misc.

I’ve started using a timer that counts down to when I want to start “bedtime prep.” Setting it in the morning gives me a clear visual reminder of how much time I have left to stick to my sleep schedule.

I’m going to derail both my Beeminder goals because of NYE. It’s one of those $5 derails that feels conflicting—I’m glad it highlights my failure to stick to my commitment, but I already know that, so why pay? I’m going to cough it up. I’m holding off on deciding “the reminder worked fine” until I see that I can avoid another derail.

Commitment

• Next report includes 3 days with naps.
• I’ll either say, “I now know how to handle anxious nights,” or share meaningful attempts.
• Sleep regularity stays where it is or improves, or I’ll know why it’s not and what changes to consider.
• This thread is taking quite a lot of time. I’d like to start working on reducing it, while getting the benefits.

[aad]

Week 1, December 30-January 5

Focus: Sleep Regularity

Summary

I could’ve done better this week.

One night, I stayed up writing instead of going to bed on time—felt the effects the next day.

I keep skipping naps, even when I feel like I need one. I have the time, but I resist, telling myself it’ll help me sleep better at night (even though it probably doesn’t).

On the bright side, my bedtime routine is working well and keeping me somewhat on track.

I did have another anxious, chatty-brain night. Mindfulness didn’t help, so I’ve made an appointment with my GP to figure this out.

Details

Sleep Cycle can’t graph nights that don’t “go smoothly” (= has more than one segment), so I’m not sure if I can trust their metrics. I’m going to stop using it.

Consistency

bednight derailed on NYE, but I still find the graph helpful. The aim is to stay parallel to the redline with minimal “climb” variations.

Routine

Derailed on NYE—oops!

Bedtime reading has worked well for falling asleep easily, and I’m sticking with it!

Difficulties falling asleep

Had one anxious night this week, similar to last week. Counting this as week 3 of 3 weeks for success.

Feeling good about this setup:

• Morning timer counting down to bedtime
• 2 goals helping me stick to a routine

Since this week was a red, I’ll monitor for one more week. Seems like it’s just the anxious-mind issues now, which need a different approach.

Naps & deep rest

I’ve changed the title to include “deep rest.”

This gets a red circle. Only one day where I napped, while I aimed at 3.

Commitments

• Taking another shot at naps: Next report includes 3 days with naps.
• Reflecting on [deep rest content I found].
• Keep at least the same buffer on my goals as now.