07 September, 2009

Sleeping mechanics 101 - Part 2: The Data

Ok, The data set is a sleeping log of 30 days (with some days missing, just because... :S ). They contain the time I went to bed, not the exact time I fell asleep, but is the best measuring point... I assume you agree. Also, there are few days where I woke up and could not sleep right after going to the bathroom or setting up the alarm for next day... whatever... you get the picture: the sleep times are quite 'optimistic' in terms that are biased towards the highest sleeping time possible.


Day of the week hours slept
Monday 06:52
Tuesday 06:59
Wednesday 06:23
Thursday 07:19
Friday 08:45
Saturday 08:13
Sunday 07:22



The median of the data: 7 hours and 5 minutes

Insights:

  • First of all, it was impressive to see that my normal perception of the hours I sleep where underestimated, normally responding "I sleep around 6 hours", while my average time is: 7 hours and 25 minutes (app).
  • I wonder what makes me sleep less during the middle of the week (Wednesday, min value of 6 hours and 23 minutes, one hour less than my average)
  • It was easy to predict that even though Friday and Saturday nights are the ones that I went to bed the latest (average of 2:30 am, 1:15 am on Fridays and 3:50am on Saturdays) , they where the ones I slept the most...
  • Since I am playing soccer on Saturday "dawns" (9:30am) I have changed a little the party-routines and try to start messin' around earlier (9 pm more or less) to be able to wake up for the matches.
  • The average time I went to bed during weekdays (or nights before I have to go to work) is around 12:45 - 12:50 am, something I would expect, considering that after a late dinner (9pm) I normally watch one or two movies or something like that.
Finally, no too many discoveries but interesting values and trends. My next post will be related to the quality of sleep and what are the conditions when I defined my sleep time as "positive"

Cheers and keep dreaming :P

1 comment:

GagoX said...

Dear Daniel,

Very interesting posts. I have done something similar in the past and had impresive conclusions. So maybe you can try this too as well.
1) I am very convinced that the eating habits determine a grat part your sleeping.
2)I notice that when I eat carbs in the evening (=sweets, pasta, potato), it is really difficult to wake up the next day.
3)the contrary with doing sports or eating no carbs.
4)hard alcohol or more than one wine glass at the evening makes it double so hard to wake up(getting drunk makes it impossible!).
5)read biochemistry from Barry Sears or the work of Montignac. They explain those effects pretty well. It has to be with the amount of energy your body is able to get from the food (not the amount of energy to eat) and that is regulated by the insuline you make your body produce.

saludos loco.
GagoX