Friday, November 4, 2011

More Technology To Be Paleo?? (seems contradictory)

Subject of sleep...and a gadget?  We're wired to sleep in complete darkness and wake WHEN we're ready.  Pressures of modern society dictate that we force when we wake.  There are plenty of studies of how following our circadian rhythm will help us feel better resting, be more creative and productive.  

Last year I read Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Body (Tim's Hacking Your Sleep) and I was convinced that there are optimum times to wake up.  He mentioned some $800+ devices that will monitor your sleep and give you a nudge when you are actually ready to rise.  Using my Garmin, I tried graphing my heart rate whle i slept.
I noticed there's a lot of activity and spikes that are through the roof.  In this graph my alarm clock went off at the absolute worst time of my sleep.  I was jarred away from my deepest sleep. If I'd waken up 30mins sooner I would have bounced right up!  

Now there's a device I can buy that will track this and respond to it.  I am on board with this puppy: Up by Jawbone.  The app on the iPhone(iPad) include several fitness 'things' - but I want the 'smart alarm'.  
You can use the app to program your band to vibrate on your wrist and silently wake you up. Within 30 minutes of your desired wake up time, the band will intelligently interpret your sleep graph identify the best moment in your natural sleep cycle so that you feel as refreshed as possible. For example, if you were to set your wake up alarm for 7:30am, the band would vibrate at the best time between 7:00am and 7:30am based on your sleep cycle.
We should be more worried about quality of sleep, and not quantity.  Darkness, quiet, consistency,  etc.  Sleep is when we heal and store things we've learned during the day.   I will try a gadget to help my sleep.  Am I crazy??