5 hours 33 minutes last night. I’ve veered off course in my goal of getting better sleep, but that’s OK. I’ve had a lot of job stress the last few weeks and wasn’t sure how or if it was going to resolve itself, but happily it did this week! Yesterday I went down to Boston to spend the day with a dear friend. So not the best night sleep last night, in part because I was so happy and still excited from yesterday’s visit.

Sleep is definitely a process. I’m redoubling my efforts, starting tonight. The biggest thing I need to do is go to bed earlier.

Have a great weekend!

MadisonMolly2017 wrote: »

I think going forwards, until an accurate sleep-tracking system is invented, I’m just going to record time from lights out until I wake up. Otherwise, I find it distressing.

@MadisonMolly, I think this is an excellent point. While the sleep specifics of Awake time, REM, Light Sleep, Deep Sleep, and Sleep Quality are interesting, how much control over these things do we really have? Can I nudge myself to get more Deep Sleep and wake up less often during the night? Probably not. Ultimately, I think the most important factor for how sleep impacts our health is the total amount of sleep we get each night. And for me, that's principally determined by when I go to bed each night. That's the thing I need to focus on.

Collecting more data doesn't guarantee you'll improve the goal you are shooting for. More data doesn't mean a better outcome. In fact, more data can just be distressing. I want to stay focused on the data I have some control over. Like my bedtime.

As an aside, does anyone remember the BodyMedia Fit devices a few years ago? They were quite popular when I first started using MFP in 2011. The company claimed it collected 5000 data points a minute to give you the best estimate possible of your caloric intake and outtake. 5000 data points! The subtle inference was that MORE DATA = BETTER RESULTS. I don't buy it. For me, I want to stay focused on tracking a few data points that are known to have a big impact on the goal that I have (better health) AND are things that I can control. I'm staying focused on what and how much I eat, regular exercise, sitting less, getting enough sleep, managing stress (ha! I did that this week!) and doing something joyful at least once a day.

6 hours 32 minutes last night.

I’ve learned this summer that 6 hours 30 minutes is the minimum I need every day. I want to work on getting 7 hours of sleep consistently. 7 to 7.5 would be ideal. But realistically. I don’t think that will happen every night. So my goal is really to get at least 6 1/2 hours of sleep every night, while creating the habits and practices (going to bed earlier) that will likely result in me sleeping 7+ hours a night.