What do you do with the sleep data from your tracker?

NorthCascades

I never look at mine, but I know this feature is important to some people. I'm curious how people benefit from it.

anaxmann

It tells me why I am so tired some days, typically due to a lot of light sleep. Also, it helps me make sure I am getting enough sleep (total hours).

Rusty740

I usually confirm that's exactly how long the kids or pets kept me up in the middle of the night.

Me, reviewing my sleep data from the previous night.

Yep, there it is, that's when one kid had to be snuggled 'cause of a nightmare. Yep, there's where I took her back to her own bed when she pushed her mom off our bed. Yup, that's when the cat woke me up puking. There's when the dog barked at nothing.

Dyl1789

Ihave been told if you constantly look it you actually subconsciously wake up all the time and therefore actually gave bad sleep, its just a reference and should not be looked into to much

BruinsGal_91

I look at it and think, "hmm, I wonder what that means, and am I supposed to do anything with it?" Lately my Garmin thinks I've gone to sleep at 8:00pm because I've pretty much stopped moving. I haven't; I've just been sitting on my backside watching hockey.

NorthCascades

anaxmann wrote: »

It tells me why I am so tired some days, typically due to a lot of light sleep.

So you'd use it today to figure out why you feel so tired today, if last night's sleep was the reason vs the food you ate or your exercise or whatever?

I figure most of them work the same way. I can look at the sleep it thinks I got last night, or I can look at the sleep it thinks I got a year ago. I don't use either kind, personally.

anaxmann wrote: »

Also, it helps me make sure I am getting enough sleep (total hours).

I was really interested in this feature at first. Some nights I fall asleep as soon as I hit the pillow, some nights I lay awake for what seems like hours.

Rusty740

I actually find it valuable to confirm that deep sleep does occur after a good exercise several hours before sleep. Alternatively, you can see when you've been on your smartphone in bed (blue light), you have a more restless sleep.

You could use it to test things you could do to get a better sleep. The one I have (Garmin) tells me if I was awake, light sleep, or deep sleep and also shows the corresponding movement levels on the graph so it could be used to compare one night against another night vs some of the things you did prior to sleep.

tiggerlove

Lets me know how much sleep I get or how restless I was durning the night

whmscll

My Fitbit is not very accurate. Thinks I'm asleep when I'm in bed reading. And thinks I'm still asleep when in fact I woke up an hour ago but have lazed around and not gotten out of bed yet.

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

My data became valuable the longer I tracked it. It helped me work out that I wake up at 6.13am no matter what time I go to bed. So I started to go to sleep earlier. It also showed me how rubbish my sleep is after alcohol. Much more restless when I thought the opposite.

Penthesilea514

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »

My data became valuable the longer I tracked it. It helped me work out that I wake up at 6.13am no matter what time I go to bed. So I started to go to sleep earlier. It also showed me how rubbish my sleep is after alcohol. Much more restless when I thought the opposite.

Same here- I find it interesting to see how different things affect my self. On days I don't workout, but restlessness in sleep increases. Is it perfect? No- I edit the sleep start time to catch days I am in bed reading before sleep. I think the most utility comes from tying it to what you did that day/what's happening the next day to see what is impacting your sleep as well. I also am a bit of a data nerd, so I like to see all sorts of information

MeanderingMammal

As with any data source is only useful when correlated with other data. In isolation it's of negligible value.

ColoradoChlo

I use it mostly to see if I sleep full sleep cycles (which should last about 1 hour and 30 minutes) and also if I'm consistent at all. I'm an insomniac and some nights I'll sleep 3 hours and others I'll sleep 8...