Improving Deep Sleep: My Quest for Better Sleep Quality

I have written about sleep earlier but this time my focus is different.

I remember the days when I suffered from insomnia. Sometimes I slept after sunrise. I cannot believe I spent hours and hours working or crying or doing random things because sleep would just not come.

That is when I started using Calm app. Sleep stories did help me fall asleep. Some times I had to listen to one and sometimes two but sleep did come.

This feels like a memory from such a long time ago that so many details are blurred.

Now, I am on a new quest. A quest to increase my deep sleep.

I don’t know when I started wearing Apple watch to sleep and when I started paying attention to the numbers but it did happen.

The main purpose of my watch was to help me track my workouts because I suddenly gained a lot of wright during pandemic and was just not able to get rid of it. But since I do have watch, tracking other data also made sense.

In my late 30’s my aim is to become the best version of myself.

A lot of people are against a lot of calculations, including calories and sleep and protein and what not. But honestly, measurement even if it is done for a short while gives you a good indication of where you are, where you’re heading and where you want to be.

Trust me when I say that I have read a lot about sleep and I am doing a lot of things already which should ideally lead to good sleep. However, that is not happening.

As a woman, I believe 8-9 hours of sleep should be good and that means around 1.5 -2 hours of deep sleep. Yesterday, I had 9 minutes of deep sleep. So, that is where we are.

People may not get enough deep sleep if they:

• don’t sleep long enough
• toss and turn all night while trying to sleep
• work shifts and have irregular sleep patterns
• experience jet lag or frequently travel between time zones
• have a health condition that affects their ability to sleep

There is no sure shot way to increase deep sleep.

However, I read a lot and found that there are ways to sleep better:

• Managing stress.
• Having a good sleep routine.
• Sleeping in a quiet, dark and cool room.
• Blocking the light with eye mask.
• Exercising during the day.
• Meditation.
• Reading.
• No blue light an hour before sleep.

I have tried all this but it kind of did not work for me.

Mind you, I do sleep for 6-7 hours a day.

So, in this blog series I will discuss things that I am trying to get better sleep.

Experiment 1: Melatonin

I tried melatonin melts for two days. It was 10mg melt.

Did I sleep more? Yes. 8 hours on day 1 and 7 and half hours on day 2.

Did it improve my deep sleep? No. 30 minutes on day 1 and 9 minutes on day 2.

Today, I am going to try taking a hot shower before sleep. Let’s see how that goes. I will be reporting it here tomorrow.