Sleep Cycle App

So we talked about this app a bit on the hangout last night, and I tried it out and think it's super cool. I like experiments and looking at the data! I want to know if I have a regular way of sleeping, or if it changes night to night. What it showed seemed relevant:

Went to bed at 22:55
Deep sleep range through 3 am, with one slightly less deep period around 00:30 and one very deep part at 01:00.
3:30 am zipped right up to "Awake" (don't remember it)
4:15 way back down in deep sleep again.
5:01: woke up, got up
5:30: actual alarm time

I know I nearly always have a waking up around 3 am (sometimes it's just for a few seconds, sometimes I get up and do stuff). I'm curious to see what my sleep patterns are like over time.

Anyway, it was kind of fun and seems plenty sensitive to notice all ones wriggling around. I wonder if it's a problem keeping track of YOUR wriggling if you share a bed? Wouldn't it pick up the spouse's (or pet or toddler!) wriggling, too?

Are you others using it liking it? Which parts do you like best?

www.sleepcycle.com/

Tried this for the first time last night too. It needs 5 days of data to calibrate it seems. I'll post more soon, but it was pretty accurate as far as I am concerned on my first graph.

Tom, how do you use an alarm now? Or do you just magically wake up without an alarm? The alarm on this app obviously has volume control and such. But what do others do about spouse alarms? Even if they don't have an alarm, one tends to wake up when they get up during the night or in the morning. Ditto with younger children or hungry dogs/cats.

I have a Samsung Galaxy III and use Sleep as Android play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.urbandroid.sleep . It's in bed right next to me and when the alarm begins to sound I realize it's not a dream and shut it off. It doesn't bother my husband.

OK this graph is last night. That 2 am time my daughter came in woke me up because she had a bad dream. 4:40am, my wife's alarm went off for her to go workout, but she never did. I was restless for a while and i guess i started to drift again before it woke me up.

I'd love to see other people's. Here's mine. I don't remember anything from the night (ie waking up or other disturbances). The alarm was set for 5:30, so it probably was already starting it's cycle - I remember waking up at 5:01 (I checked the phone to see) and I got out of bed a few minutes later. I often wake up around 3am, so that "waking up" cycle the graph shows is typical, though I don't remember it last night.

You slept a whole hell of a lot better than I did

Now, now, this isn't a competition! If we wanted the worst sleeper award, I'd win hands-down.

A colleague at work showed me this a while ago (think its the same). Any issues with sleeping close to a phone transmitter?

I put my phone in airplane mode at night, for what it's worth (and to avoid getting any pings or calls from people in other time zones). And it lays face down, so you aren't bothered by the light from the screen.

Good Idea.

So here's Tuesday night. When I went to bed I was not sleepy, but rather energized from a long phone call and a cup of green tea. I remember tossing and turning for what seemed like a long time and the neighbor upstairs clomping around and putting loud music on. I was hot, and put the fan on, but decided it was too noisy and turned it off again. I suspect the waking up around 11:30 was part of this period where the neighbor was making noise and I was tossing and turning. I remember waking up again when he came home after being away for a few hours - I'm guessing that was the 2:30 mark. (There's not usually any noise from upstairs - they must have someone visiting, a kid home from college?) When the alarm rang at 5am I was very groggy, dehydrated from being too warm, and stiff.

I'm curious about the grogginess, Ona. According to the chart, you were supposed to be at the point in your sleep where you were most easily able to be woken by the alarm.

I used to use SleepCycle back in 2011, when I was trying to figure out why I wasn't rested after sleeping. I think I stopped using it several months after stream entry. Lately, sleep has not been as restful, and after seeing others' charts, I thought I'd restart. Here's last night's chart. I seem to have slept well most of the night. After 5:00 am or so, I remember having awareness for quite a while that I was moving around some. The app, however, thought I was asleep. What stands out is that I never had the regular light sleep - REM cycle after 4:00 am. Maybe that's why I don't feel as rested?

Today's wacky chart for me - felt like a good nights sleep. Woke up groggy though.

Maybe we can change the topic of this thread to Asleepnetwork chat

andy wrote: .... I seem to have slept well most of the night. After 5:00 am or so, I remember having awareness for quite a while that I was moving around some. The app, however, thought I was asleep. What stands out is that I never had the regular light sleep - REM cycle after 4:00 am. Maybe that's why I don't feel as rested?

You say "I slept well" but the graph is bouncing up to awake over and over all night long?

I do say this app is measuring body movement, not states of consciousness, though for most people this correlates, which is why they built the app like that (my understanding anyway). If you laid perfectly still meditating it would say "asleep".

I still think it will be interesting to see what the pattern is after 10 day so - if there is any regularity to how I sleep (per the app).

Yeah, the motion sensor in the phone measures the movement in the mattress - you lay it near your pillow on the mattress.

"During the night you go from light sleep to deep sleep, occasionally entering into a dream state which is called REM-sleep. These are things that your normal alarm clock does not care about, and will go off at the set time regardless of whether you are in a light sleep phase or in the deepest sleep. However, since you move differently in bed during the different phases, the Sleep Cycle alarm clock is able to use the accelerometer in your iPhone to monitor your movement and determine which sleep phase you are in. Sleep Cycle then uses a 30 minute alarm window that ends at your set alarm time and wakes you in your lightest sleep phase." - from their website.