If you know me at all, you’ll know that I have a long history with sleep. Well, more correctly, a long history with not getting enough of it. For the record, this is not a sponsored post. This one was borne out of pure desperation to, again, get enough sleep.
At first, being used to not getting enough sleep worked to my benefit. As mom to an infant, I handled the interrupted sleep that goes with growing an infant into a kid, better than I expected. It worked to my favour again when I worked full-time and kept a night job for the purposes of paying the bills and learning more about the career I wanted to head towards in the world. It worked extremely well for me when I went into freelancing, because working until late into the night and sometimes the early morning…didn’t scare me.
It did, however, mean that when I was able to get a full 8 hours’ sleep, I’d most often wake up groggy and operate at a “less than ideal” rating for the day. My biggest issue is always winding my brain down so that I can actually fall asleep. I eventually managed to solve that using Melatonin a few years ago, and I now really enjoy my sleep.
But life isn’t always conducive to getting seven or more hours of sleep a night. Our family schedule is a little irregular at the moment, and it often requires that the adults in this unit skimp on the number of hours of sleep. After a while, this wore me down, so I started doing some research into getting more quality sleep in a shorter space of time, so that I wouldn’t wake up feeling like I was a reversing tortoise most days. What was really not doing me any good, is that I’d feel awfully tired in the afternoons, and then have to fight sleep when it’s family time. By the time I actually got to bed, I’d be feeling wide awake again, and that’s about as useful as a tissue in a thunderstorm.
Enter the world of sleep apps, and my mate Dave. Dave is my, for want of a better term, sleep guru. He has battled similar sleep issues for a long time and uses a variety of techniques, including audio files, apps and other tools to get the sleep he needs. He’s been incredible in sharing his wisdom with me (and many others), so if you ever want his advice, pop him a message. At the rate that people responded to my recent Facebook post about it, Dave may as well be a sleep DJ by now. Thank you, my friend. I appreciate you so much!
On to the apps
I’ve been trialling a sleep cycle app called SleepyTime. My friend Jane uses the iOS version which you can download here (tip: they’re free for Android and iOS). It’s pretty straightforward: you input the time that you would like to wake up or go to sleep, and it tells you the optimum time to go to sleep or wake up. You select what I call the “sleep spot” that you prefer and snooze. You can also ask the app to awaken you using your alarm, or tell you when you need to tuck yourself in.
How it works
The app takes the maths out of figuring out your optimum sleep cycle. That’s great news for me, because I’m about as useful at sums, as I would be with painting a cityscape of Johannesburg (read: not even mildly talented). The app estimates that you’ll take 14 minutes to fall asleep, and then tacks on the average sleep cycle of 90 minutes, but you can adjust these settings within the app if you think you need to.
What’s changed for me
I used to calculate my sleep in hours, but I’m now realising that actually, mentally, worked against me. Before, I’d be morose because I only managed to snatch four and a half hours of snooze time, but now that I’m calculating my sleep using actual cycles, I feel a little better about it. For me, knowing that I’ve actually had three cycles of full sleep in that time makes me feel better.
The result
I’ve used this app for about a week now, and I’ve been amazed by how refreshed I feel upon waking. Because I’m waking up at the end of a sleep cycle, I’m immediately more alert and aware when I get up to feed the dog, which will probably mean he won’t end up with coffee in his bowl again (he puts up with a lot, that canine). This has meant that while I’m not necessarily getting the length of sleep I need (I could sleep for twelve hours straight if I was left, nowadays) I am getting good quality sleep, and I haven’t really battled with the afternoon slump as much.
Moving on
I’m going to be trying out a few other sleep apps to help me along. On Dave’s recommendation, I’m going to check out:
- Sleep Pillow Sounds – Android and iOS.
- Sleep Easy with Shazzie – Android and iOS.
- Sleepbot – Android and iOS.