I love sleeping. I love it so much that I could sleep 13 hours straight on a random Saturday — something even my partner has found surprising. But that doesn't mean I've always had a healthy relationship with sleep. For nearly a decade now, I've struggled with either sleeping too little or sleeping too much, so much so that this prompted me to do a long-form feature when I was doing my master's.
As part of my role as reviews writer, I review some of the best smartwatches. And you know what I didn't think of? Actually paying attention to the sleep tracking feature and reading up more about the various parameters it measures. With the launch of the new Honor Watch 5 Ultra, I decided I would track my sleep and understand what it meant for my general well-being.
And boy was I surprised by what I found! I knew I wasn't sleeping the best but I had no idea I wasn't getting adequate deep sleep or REM; no wonder it takes three coffees before noon to get me to function properly. But that's not all. Let me show you everything the Watch 5 Ultra showed me, and how it's helped me change some pre-sleep habits.
The deep end
The Honor Watch 5 Ultra, like other good smartwatches, tracks your sleep throughout the night, using its array of sensors. This means that it mostly knows when you're in light and deep sleep, and dreaming in REM. The Honor Health app gives you a detailed analysis in the morning, where it tells you how much sleep you got in reference to what's considered normal. And let me tell you, I've only just discovered I haven't been getting enough deep sleep.
What is deep sleep anyway? It's a restorative sleep stage that helps with memory, tissue repair, and immune system strength. According to The Insomnia and Sleep Institute of Arizona, adults need to spend at least 10-15% of their sleep time in deep sleep.
Sleep trackers, according to Oxford Neuroscience, are only accurate 78% of the time, so I took this with a pinch of salt.
According to the Watch 5 Ultra, the least amount of deep sleep I've gotten is 7% and the most is 20%, but it cites 20-60% required so more often than not, it would tell me I hadn't had enough deep sleep. Now, this is true for most days but not all. Sleep trackers, according to Oxford Neuroscience, are only accurate 78% of the time, so I took this with a pinch of salt.
While the Watch 5 Ultra may not be 100% accurate, at least it has prompted me into researching about sleep — something I hadn't thought of doing before.
Too much, too little
Sleeping too little, of course, hampers your ability to function properly the next day. But did you know that sleeping too much can have the same effect? Despite my partner having mentioned this on numerous occasions, I didn't actually believe it. It was only after my Honor Watch 5 Ultra had informed me that I'd slept too much that I looked into it properly.
Sleeping too much can disrupt your internal clock and increase the risk of chronic illnesses. If you sleep for more than nine hours in a 24-hour period, that's considered oversleeping. Based on how much light, deep sleep and REM you get, the Watch 5 Ultra gives you a sleep score, and it also tells you your bedtime pattern.
The Watch 5 Ultra has taught me that I must be more mindful of when I go to bed, and it's something I want to do this year for sure.
According to the smartwatch, my bedtime pattern is irregular, which isn't surprising. I thought back to remember any factors that may have affected it: going out with coworkers for a drink after work, waiting up for my partner to come back from her late shift, spending too much time on Reddit. It all added up.
The Watch 5 Ultra has taught me that I must be more mindful of when I go to bed, and it's something I want to do this year for sure.
It's all related
Seeing how poorly I was sleeping, I thought I'd take a look at some of the other stats the Honor Watch 5 Ultra collects, such as stress monitoring. When enabled, the smartwatch will track your stress throughout the day and even suggest breathing/meditation techniques that can help relieve stress.
I scrolled through my stress graphs and compared them against the sleep graphs of when I'd either not gotten good quality sleep or was told I didn't spend much time in deep sleep.
And I did find a pattern I'm hoping to read up more about soon: my stress levels were between medium and high right before I'd fallen asleep. Maybe I was anxious? Going down a rabbit hole of bad thoughts? You can see the comparisons above.
Rome wasn't built in a day and I can't fix my bad habits overnight. It'll take some time to eliminate stress triggers and cut out habits like spending way too much time on my phone before catching my ZZZs.
But at least the Watch 5 Ultra has helped me understand the things I do need to change, so it's a start. The first step to change is awareness, isn't it?
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