I've just spent a week recording my sleep using the Fitbit One on my wrist.
The conclusion? It's exactly as I had thought it was. I was a little surprised to find that I was not exaggerating my bad sleep experience. It is much worse than my normal insomnia, which used to be just having a hard time falling asleep... before, I could mostly stay asleep and also had good quality morning sleep.
The stats for the week!
Average sleep time: 4hr 15min (it is actually less, because the little bits of "sleep" in between restlessness are actually just me lying as still as possible)
Average in-bed time: 7hr 45min
Average wake times: 17
Average restless times: 25
Longest uninterrupted sleep: 1hr 27 minutes... in an entire week, I thought I'd do better!
Total naps: 1, for 20 minutes yesterday
Average baby feeding times: 1.7 ... well, that stat's actually pretty good. :)
Torin used to wake for the day around 9:30-10, and my best sleep was in the mornings in that 6-10am window. For some mysterious reason he decided to get up at 8:30 for a few days, and now he appears to be liking this 6:50 wake time. WHY, BABY, WHY?! Anyway, the reason I was in bed until 9 or 10 on Tues and Weds is that Ryan is awesome and he stole Torin away so I could get more sleep.
The Plan... from Kaiser.
I found a 6-week cognitive behavioral therapy plan for insomnia on the Kaiser website. If I go to the doctor with my life-long insomnia complaint (but still want to avoid sleep drugs), she is going to have me do this plan anyway, so I figure I might as well try it out before going in.
I did one plan that I remember as the "Harvard" insomnia cure, which is sort of the same thing as Kaiser's insomnia therapy, except it was more strict. Since I'm sleeping about 4 hours a night total, the Harvard one would have me spend 4 hours in bed the first night, and then slowly expand that once I am sleeping the full 4 hours. Kaiser's plan has me in bed for 5.5 hours (that's their minimum, no matter how little you sleep, but otherwise they give you your sleep time plus 1 hour) and then will expand that as I sleep more than 4 hours. I just have to decide what I want my wake-up time to be.
The point with both of those plans is that it teaches you to consolidate your sleep. With the Harvard one, I did it a few times for a month or four at a time very strictly because I was determined to fix my insomnia once and for all... and then I swore never to do it again. Those are periods of my life that I barely remember because I was so tired that I was in a daze the whole time, and all I remember is that it felt torturous and that I was absolutely sure it mentally and physically damaged me.
I'll do the Kaiser plan, but if it gets to that Harvard point then I will have to stop because I still have to be able to do stuff like care for a baby without being filled with rage. I am also going to start it after vacation because I still need to function socially.
The conclusion? It's exactly as I had thought it was. I was a little surprised to find that I was not exaggerating my bad sleep experience. It is much worse than my normal insomnia, which used to be just having a hard time falling asleep... before, I could mostly stay asleep and also had good quality morning sleep.
The stats for the week!
Average sleep time: 4hr 15min (it is actually less, because the little bits of "sleep" in between restlessness are actually just me lying as still as possible)
Average in-bed time: 7hr 45min
Average wake times: 17
Average restless times: 25
Longest uninterrupted sleep: 1hr 27 minutes... in an entire week, I thought I'd do better!
Total naps: 1, for 20 minutes yesterday
Average baby feeding times: 1.7 ... well, that stat's actually pretty good. :)
Dark blue = sleep, light blue = restless, pink = awake.
Torin used to wake for the day around 9:30-10, and my best sleep was in the mornings in that 6-10am window. For some mysterious reason he decided to get up at 8:30 for a few days, and now he appears to be liking this 6:50 wake time. WHY, BABY, WHY?! Anyway, the reason I was in bed until 9 or 10 on Tues and Weds is that Ryan is awesome and he stole Torin away so I could get more sleep.
The Plan... from Kaiser.
I found a 6-week cognitive behavioral therapy plan for insomnia on the Kaiser website. If I go to the doctor with my life-long insomnia complaint (but still want to avoid sleep drugs), she is going to have me do this plan anyway, so I figure I might as well try it out before going in.
I did one plan that I remember as the "Harvard" insomnia cure, which is sort of the same thing as Kaiser's insomnia therapy, except it was more strict. Since I'm sleeping about 4 hours a night total, the Harvard one would have me spend 4 hours in bed the first night, and then slowly expand that once I am sleeping the full 4 hours. Kaiser's plan has me in bed for 5.5 hours (that's their minimum, no matter how little you sleep, but otherwise they give you your sleep time plus 1 hour) and then will expand that as I sleep more than 4 hours. I just have to decide what I want my wake-up time to be.
The point with both of those plans is that it teaches you to consolidate your sleep. With the Harvard one, I did it a few times for a month or four at a time very strictly because I was determined to fix my insomnia once and for all... and then I swore never to do it again. Those are periods of my life that I barely remember because I was so tired that I was in a daze the whole time, and all I remember is that it felt torturous and that I was absolutely sure it mentally and physically damaged me.
I'll do the Kaiser plan, but if it gets to that Harvard point then I will have to stop because I still have to be able to do stuff like care for a baby without being filled with rage. I am also going to start it after vacation because I still need to function socially.
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