14Apr / 2023

Age and getting enough sleep

Reuters dug in to the science of sleep and how paying attention to our rhythms affect our health. On dreams:

Sleep itself has cycles, in which the brain and body move through phases, marked by varying brain activity. In the deepest phases of sleep, the brain waves are slowest. The lighter phases have more rapid bursts of activity.

Our most intense dreams usually happen during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, when brain activity, breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure all increase, the eyes move rapidly, and muscles are limp. Scientists believe dreams in REM and non-REM sleep have different content – the more vivid or bizarre dreams usually happen during REM stages.

Daylight saving time and circadian rhythms

Daylight saving time ends in the United States this weekend and ended already in other places. This can only mean one thing, which is that we must hem and haw about whether to shift our clocks or not. Aaron Steckelberg and Lindsey Bever, for The Washington Post, illustrated the sleep challenges that arise when we have to change measured time, which is easy to shift with button presses, against our less malleable internal time, which is more in tune with sunlight.

Scrolling through, it started to feel like too many layers on top of that clock, but my main takeaway, and I think we can all agree on this, is that we should all get to sleep and wake whenever we want. Boom, problem solved.

Tags: daylight saving, illustration, sleep, Washington Post

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25Jul / 2019

Blanket pattern visualizes baby’s sleep data

Seung Lee collected sleep data for his son’s first year. Then he knitted a blanket to visualize the data. The blanket is impressive. Collecting a baby’s sleep data for a year? More so.

Tags: baby, blanket, sleep

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21Aug / 2014

Track your sleep with Sense

Entering the market of self-surveillance for sleep, via Kickstarter, Sense promises to be a smarter tracker that you don't have to wear.

It's a two-part system. The first part is a sphere that logs your surroundings such as noise and temperature. It sits on your dresser. The second part is the "Sense Pill" which clips on your pillow case to record movement. Data syncs to your phone. And if you have a second person in your bed, you can just get another pill to record sleep on that side too.

Looks promising. They're well over their goal, but if you want to get one as an early backer and at a discounted price, there's one day left in the Kickstarter.

Tags: Kickstarter, sleep

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20Aug / 2014

When the world sleeps

Jawbone Sleep

An additional hour of sleep can make a huge difference in how you feel the next day (especially when you have kids). It's the ability to concentrate for long periods of time versus the ability to stare at a clock until your next break. I got the Jawbone UP24 band to try to improve on that, and I still wear it every night to better understand my sleep habits.

So, it only seems natural for Jawbone to look closer at how people sleep as a whole in a couple of interactive graphics. Select your city to see how people sleep in your neck of the woods.

Every now and then we see a set of graphics that shows America's sleep habits, based on data from the American Time Use Survey. The Jawbone data is likely more accurate though, which makes it more interesting. The former depends on survey participants' memories and doesn't factor out things like reading in bed. The latter is actual sleep.

Tags: Jawbone, sleep

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Tag Archives: sleep

Age and getting enough sleep

Daylight saving time and circadian rhythms

Blanket pattern visualizes baby’s sleep data

Track your sleep with Sense

When the world sleeps

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