In 2024, keeping track of your sleep is easier than ever. Every fitness tracker, ring or band comes with a sleep tracking tool, and even if you don’t have this tech to hand, you can probably log the number of hours you sleep using your phone or tablet. We know more about our sleep, too. From the restorative benefits of deep sleep to the surprising role light sleep plays in our memory consolidation, there’s plenty of information and advice out there for anyone looking to improve their sleep.

But as someone who’s always been a ‘good’ sleeper, I’ve never really felt the need to track my sleep. While my friends suffer with sleepless nights, midnight wake-ups and periods of 3am restlessness, I tend to fall asleep quickly and wake up when my alarm goes off eight hours later. In fact, I sleep so well that my friends and I often joke that someone up above decided to balance out my mental health issues with good sleep, because it seems so nonsensical that someone with anxiety could nod off as soon as their head hits the pillow. But here I am.  

That good sleep doesn’t always translate into good energy levels; I often struggle to wake up in the mornings and find my energy levels fluctuate throughout the week. But I always presumed that was down to something else like stress, nutrition or general day-to-day strain. So when I was given the chance to try out an Oura ring – a health and wellness tracker which records data on your stress levels, physical activity and, most importantly, your sleep – I didn’t expect to learn much.

I knew from testing previous trackers that my body tends to be unaffected by mental stress (handy for someone with an anxiety disorder) and wearing an Apple Watch during the day means I’m au-fait with my heart rate and movement levels. However, after wearing my Oura ring for one month (day and night), I’ve discovered my sleep may not be as ‘good’ as I previously thought. In fact, it could be directly linked to my fluctuating energy levels.

Of course, tracking your sleep isn’t necessary if you’re not struggling with low energy. All the things I’ve learned since using my Oura ring are interesting, but you don’t need to have ‘perfect’ sleep to feel good – far from it. In fact, trying to perfect your sleep can make things worse in the long run, so take any information from a tracker with a pinch of salt.

But going forward, I’ll definitely be keeping the following lessons in mind when I feel like I need some extra ZZZs. Here’s everything I’ve learned over the last month. 

Because my sleep has always been straightforward, I didn’t expect my daytime activities to have much of an effect on what goes on at night. However, I quickly realised that the choices I make throughout the day can massively influence how well I rest throughout the night – especially when it comes to deep sleep.

For example, I’ve found that doing yoga in the evening can be particularly beneficial. I’m currently following a new training plan which requires me to do one yoga or mobility session per week, and I’ve found that every time I do one of these sessions, the amount of deep sleep I get increases massively. On average, I’d say deep sleep makes up around 15% of the sleep I get (although on bad nights, it can go as low as 10%). However, on the days when I’ve done evening yoga, I’ve found deep sleep makes up over 20% of my nightly sleep, with most of it occurring in the first half of the night.

I’ve also been surprised by the fluctuations in my restlessness (Oura records this by measuring your movement in the night and giving you a score ranging from ‘pay attention’ to ‘optimal’) and latency (the amount of time it takes me to fall asleep). After doing yoga in the evening, I found that my latency drops massively – after one of the sessions, it took me three minutes to fall asleep after my head hit the pillow.

That’s not a good thing; such a quick latency suggests my body was overtired and desperately in need of rest. But perhaps it was a sign that my body had been struggling to relax and finally felt able to do so. 

I’ve been out and about quite a lot this month, so I’ve been able to observe just how significant an impact alcohol can have on my sleep. I’ve long known that drinking can affect sleep quality – while you’ll fall asleep faster, you’ll likely spend less time in the REM stage of sleep after having a few drinks. What I didn’t know was just how long-lasting the effects of alcohol can be.

For example, after one night out with my friends, it took me three nights to get my REM sleep back to an optimal range. Another night, I noticed that my resting heart rate remained much more elevated than usual after a few glasses of wine. On average, mine goes down to around 65bpm, but after a few drinks, it only got as low as 78bpm (with an average of 92bpm, eek). 

Building a consistent exercise routine is one of those pieces of advice that always crops up in articles about how to sleep better, but I’ve found that the benefits of movement really depend on the type of exercise I do. Running speedy laps around your local park might make you tired, but high-intensity exercise can decrease the quality of your sleep if you’re not careful.

In particular, I’ve found that going for a run can influence how restful I am throughout the night. If my heart rate is particularly elevated during my workout, my restfulness score tends to slip down a category or two. My REM sleep has also taken a hit after some particularly intense workouts.

Of course, this isn’t the case with all the exercise I’ve done, and I’ve definitely noticed a positive effect on my sleep from exercise overall. It’s just a reminder that pushing your body to the limit isn’t always necessary to reap the benefits – both for your sleep and overall fitness. 

Images: Getty; Lauren Geall