No, this isn’t about the Eagles song “One of These Nights”. It’s about the sleeping (or sleepless?) night I occasionally have. And I had one last night.
You know, I can almost tell when I’m going to have one of these. I go to bed but I’m not feeling terribly sleepy. My typical problem is falling asleep but lately it seems it’s been more about waking up and then not falling back to sleep. Both are extremely frustrating and the more frustrated I get, the harder it is to get to sleep.
About last night
I told Tim this morning that I probably slept only a couple of hours last night. Surprisingly, when I updated my FitBit stats this morning, I actually slept 6 hours and 16 minutes. But I was also awake 112 minutes. That’s almost two hours!!
When my cousin was here last weekend, he talked about his sleeping issues. He was told he had a “busy brain”, which I know is exactly my problem.
I had everything in the world going through my head when I should have been sleeping. I was tossing and turning as I thought about making cookies today, and how I’d get to Tim’s packet pickup with stops at Walgreens and Michaels either before or after.
I had a stupid song that I couldn’t get out of my head.
I was thinking about blog posts and now can’t remember any of those great ideas. This isn’t even the post I had planned for today but I thought it would be easier/faster to write than the one I had in mind.
I was designing a logo to use on the cards I make. All perfectly good things to be doing in the middle of the night, right?
How can I deal with it?
Before I was married, I’d turn on the TV in my bedroom when I couldn’t get to sleep. I might turn on the light and read a little, but that was rare. And I never remember actually getting up. For some reason, I feel I have to gut it out, tossing and turning and feeling more and more tired.
I’ll admit, last night I truly considered getting up and reading for a while. But assuming my stats are accurate, I’m glad I stayed in bed.
The good thing? I usually sleep great the following night. I think I’m just so tired at that point that my brain can’t handle all that busyness two nights in a row. So, let’s hope that holds true tonight.
Insights from my FitBit
I had always thought I’d like a FitBit but never wanted to spend the money. I tend to be a late adopter with most technology. 🤔 Well, on Amazon Prime day in July, I decided to bite the bullet.
I purchased the Alta HR. Because this also tracks my heart rate, and I wear it to bed, Fitbit uses a combination of my movement and heart-rate patterns to estimate my sleep stages. I’ve been wearing it since July 21 and I find the sleep information to be the most insightful.
I’ve always known I was a light sleeper and this confirms it.
I set a goal of 7.8 hours of actual sleep per night. Since July 21, I’ve achieved that only three times!! And I assumed I was getting eight hours of sleep most nights. I guess that’s how long I’m actually in bed most nights, but I’m definitely not sleeping the entire time.
Here are my average sleep stats from July 21 through today:
From what FitBit tells me, this is what women my age average:
Minutes Awake: 15 – 27%
REM Sleep: 12 – 22%
Light Sleep: 40 – 60%
Deep Sleep: 8 -16%
I guess I shouldn’t feel too out of sync. My awake minutes are way below the benchmark range, while my light sleep is slightly above. I think I’ll take more light sleep vs. being awake!!
More about FitBit
In future posts, I’ll share other interesting things I’m able to monitor, such as heart rate. I wear it most of the time so supposedly it does a decent job of determining my resting heart rate.
One thing I did learn – it doesn’t handle time zone changes very well. When we went to Arizona and arrived after midnight (our time), it evidently didn’t switch to Arizona time until I was asleep. As a result, I lost two hours of sleep information!! I’ll remember that next time and make sure it’s updated BEFORE I go to bed.
Do you have a FitBit? Or maybe you had one and you’ve already moved on to the next best technology? Wouldn’t surprise me. 😂
