Use a sleep tracker to identify patterns

Wear a sleep-tracking wearable or place a bedside sleep monitor to log your sleep duration, wake-ups, and approximate sleep stages over several weeks. Use the data to spot patterns between your daytime habits and sleep quality.

Why It Works

Sleep trackers provide objective feedback that reveals patterns you may not notice subjectively, such as how late meals, screen time, or exercise timing correlate with worse sleep nights. While consumer-grade trackers are not as accurate as clinical polysomnography, they are reliable enough for tracking trends over time. Identifying that you consistently sleep poorly on days you exercise late or skip your wind-down routine gives you actionable information.

Tips

• Focus on trends over weeks, not individual night scores, which can be inaccurate
• Popular options include Oura Ring, Whoop, Fitbit, and Apple Watch
• Free smartphone apps using the accelerometer (like Sleep Cycle) offer basic tracking without a wearable
• If tracking causes anxiety about sleep ("orthosomnia"), stop using it; the stress is counterproductive
• A persistent pattern of poor sleep despite good habits warrants a conversation with your doctor