How to Track Your Sleep Habits

As I mentioned in the post How to Build Willpower, adequate sleep is important for every man to be at his best 24/7.   Consistently getting a good night's rest is critical to refreshing willpower reserves, having enough energy to face the day's challenges, and maintaining a positive view of the world.  If you struggle to get the 7 or 8 hours every night, or think you are getting enough time in bed but are never really refreshed in the morning, tracking your sleep habits may be the solution for you.  Collecting data about your sleep habits and using that data to make decisions about your life is the best way to effectively manage your sleep habits.  There are a number of products on the market that do this type of data collection, but the best product I have encountered is the Lark Silent Un-Alarm Clock and Sleep Sensor.  Lark is the perfect tool if you want to get data on your sleep quality and quantity.  All successful men know that using data to drive your decisions is the best way to achieve desired results and meet one's goals.

The Lark system provides the user with a variety of useful information about each night's sleep and overall sleep habits.  Each night of sleep is given a quality score based on a number of parameters, including time asleep, how long it took to go to sleep, number of times awoken, and activity during sleep.  Each of these parameters are also shown individually for each night's sleep.  The system also captures the time you went to bed and the time you woke up (turned off the alarm).  An important thing to note is that Lark differentiates between time in bed and time asleep.  A difference between these two values could indicate a problem with sleep quality or bedtime routine.

Lark Pro Sleep Monitor Silent Alarm Clock and Personal Sleep Coach is another product by Lark with a few more features.  This product gives you access to Lark's online sleep coach, which assesses 1 week of your typical sleep habits and classifies your sleep type with recommendations for correcting any issues.  This product also allows you to set goals and track in your sleep history which nights you met your goals.  You can set goals for bedtime, awake time, and time in bed.

Some other features both Lark systems provide are your personal feedback on how you feel after a given night's sleep.  You can rank your morning feeling from Awful to Great, with a number of in-between options.  This color-codes the nights sleep and helps you recognize patterns with a particular week or time of the year.  The system also allows you to add specific tags to each night that may affect your sleep.  Tags include things such as computer or tv before bed, bathroom, sickness, exercise, etc.  Lastly, the Lark program shows your 7 day, 30 day, and all time sleep stats for a bigger picture look.

The Lark system consists of a wrist band that docks to the charger.  The wrist band vibrates to wake you in a less disturbing manner than a standard alarm clock.  The wrist band links with your phone or tablet through the Lark Up app.  This app is where you set your alarms and view your sleep stats.  All of your stats can also be accessed through your online profile at www.lark.com.



For more information on tools and gadgets that can help you use data to drive your habits, visit the article Track Your Life: Exercise, Sleep, Diet, and More!.  This article goes into details of other great products that turn your activities into data and help build productive habits in your life, whether that means eating healthier or tracking your workouts.  Tracking your sleep habits is a greaat starting point for this approach to building habits since sleep takes very little effort (unlike diet and exercise). Once you see the data, it will encourage you to change your ways or, hopefully, keep up the good work!