Decoding Discrepancies: What to Do When Your Sleep Tracker Contradicts Your Experience

Dec. 15, 2023

In today's episode of the Nourish Balance Thrive Podcast, we delved deep into the realm of sleep health, particularly focusing on the role of sleep wearables and nearables. Here's a summary of the key takeaways from our discussion:

1. Sleep Wearables and Nearables Track Sleep: We explored how these devices passively monitor various sleep metrics such as duration, phases, and disturbances, offering a convenient and objective way to gather data on our sleep patterns.

2. Self-Monitoring as a Cornerstone of Behavior Change: We discussed the importance of self-monitoring in the context of behavior change. By actively tracking our sleep habits, we gain insights that can lead to meaningful improvements in sleep quality and, consequently, athletic performance.

3. Variability and Opacity in Proprietary Sleep and Stress Scores: We acknowledged that the scores provided by these devices, though helpful, can vary and sometimes be opaque in their calculation methods. It's essential to understand the limitations of these metrics.

4. Process Over Outcome: Emphasizing Simon Marshall's wisdom, we stressed the importance of focusing on the behaviors that lead to the desired outcome rather than the outcome itself. It's more beneficial to track and adjust behaviors influencing sleep quality than to fixate solely on the sleep efficiency percentage.

5. Sleep-State Misperception and Imperfections in Tracking Devices: We addressed the concept of sleep-state misperception, where there can be a discrepancy between the data reported by devices and how we subjectively feel about our sleep. This highlights the need to consider both objective data and our subjective experience when assessing sleep quality.

Each of these points contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how we can use technology to enhance our sleep health while also recognizing the importance of our own perceptions and behaviors in this process. Our discussion today serves as a guide to navigating the complex world of sleep tracking, aiming to help you achieve optimal sleep for better athletic performance and overall well-being.

Don't miss this opportunity to revolutionize your sleep and performance. Join us on Discord and start your journey with SleepMate today. Your best sleep and peak performance await! Simply visit sleepmate.nbt.link. This link will take you directly to our Discord server where you can start using SleepMate.