Sleep Tracking Poll

I am curious about how other people think about this sort of stuff. Do you find it interesting? Boring? Of value? Problematic? Indication of societal decline and the end of days?

Sleep seems like a problematic area for most of the people I know. I wonder if this extends as far into the general population as I think it does. From all the articles and websites dedicated to the topic, you’d think so. But then, you rarely hear from people when they’re happy; you most often hear from them when they have a complaint (if nothing else, working in video gaming has taught me that).

At any rate, I’m curious to see how many people find tracking of value.

Fitbit & Zeo Graphs

Because a picture is worth a thousand words, and, honestly, because I am feeling too tired to do much of a write up on anything today… The sleep graphs from last night, starting with the fitbit.

 

Fitbit Graph for 10-27-2010

And now the Zeo:

The Zeo Arrived

Zeo arrived today. I haven’t even opened it yet.

Snake Oil vs Supplements

This is awesome. It’s a visual representation of which supplements have been proven to work, and which have no substantiation whatsoever.

 

There’s an interactive version you can mouse over and click on to see specific conditions and links to the research. If I weren’t already in love with my bf, I’d say I was in love with this guy. In a purely intellectual way, of course. (What? Aren’t you in love with your SO’s intellect?)

I am totally increasing my cinnamon intake. And buying some creatine…

Comparison: Fitbit vs. Sleep Cycle

This comparison isn’t going to be precisely fair, since I’ve been using my fitbit for about 10 months, and I only used Sleep Cycle (an iPhone app) for one night. But I can definitely give some initial impressions.

I’ve already talked about how useful I find the information from my fitbit. Here’s the data from last night, and no, I’m not sure what I was doing up at 2:41; I was on Ambien and it seemed like a good idea at the time:

Here is that same night, from Sleep Cycle:

Slightly Better Sleep

Tried a different CPAP mask last night and, according to my fitbit, slept slightly better.

Slight improvement with different mask.

Still not great. I should be around 95% sleep efficiency, ideally. And I ought to have more full sleep cycles in there; most people need a full 90 minutes to have a complete sleep cycle. It looks like I had two blocks that were long enough. I really would like to have three full cycles a night.

Fitbit: Tracking My Sleep, and My Sleep Does Not Look Good

I am tired.

Very, very tired.

Not sound sleep.

This was last night. 18 times awakened. Bah. And this isn’t even bad in comparison to the last few weeks. For this same night, my CPAP tells me I was averaging 12 hypopneas an hour. This is not good. But it’s better than the 25 I got a few days ago, which, according to the fitbit, translated into 38 times awakened during that night:

Don’t Trust Anything That Bleeds for Five Days and Doesn’t Die

Was it Heinlein who said that? For some reason, I want to attribute it to him.

Any rate. If you couldn’t tell from the title of this post (and really, it’s a dead giveaway) I’m talking about menstruation. Here’s my menstrual calendar for the last year.

June 2009 – May 2010

I am apparently deeply untrustworthy.

I’m Not the Only One (Five Links)

Currently feeling overwhelmed with some family medical news, which I’m not able to discuss publicly yet. In a week or two. Instead, some links I’ve found interesting.

The Data Driven Life: An article from Time Magazine that’s about me. Or people very like me. It’s about the obsession with tracking, the usefulness and the pitfalls. A friend mentioned the meet-ups sponsored by QS to me some time back, and I’d been meaning to check one out right around when my kidney infection hit in January.

A history of BMI : Great links. Lovely research. Makes me happy. This says pretty much everything I’d want to say. BMI is not an accurate indicator of health, or actual overweight. Body measurement, skin calipers, and hydrostatic weighing are far more accurate. I’ve been tracking body measurements for a while, and will no doubt post that spreadsheet in the future.

I found this via Jim Hines’ blog, where he posts about BMI and weight issues using himself, and his BMI. He also links to the Illustrated BMI from a few years back, which I loved then and still love now. I have a few friends in the accompanying Flickr photo set.

Utility Belt! A friend recently gave me this as a gift, after learning I’d been lusting after it for a year. I got mine in black. If I am very clever, I will eventually manage to get a picture of me wearing it.

Meeting a New Doc Today

Seeing a new doc today. Feeling a bit stressed about it.

For years, when I told my doctors I thought something was wrong, they told me I was wrong. That I was perfectly healthy and maybe I was just depressed.

Fast forward to this past September and the double diagnostic whammy of Sleep Apnea and PCOS. Nothing wrong, my ass. (Actually, there’s nothing wrong with my ass – it’s one of the few body parts with which I’m completely happy).

Any rate, even though I’m going in to see this new doc with those two diagnoses in hand, with a referral from my primary care doc, and with an unquestionably positive Celiac screening test… I’m bracing for getting brushed off. Bah.

So, I’ve been reorganizing my Medical Info Binder. It seems like one of the few productive (and at least not destructive) things I can do with the excess worry-energy. Wanna see pics? I’m so ridiculously proud.

Medical Binder of Massiveness

Interior - With Tabs

Page one is a list of current diagnoses and medications (mostly blurred out for practicality reasons).

The tabs are for the different years. Thanks to the combination of my OCD and my Dad’s OCD, I have medical records going back to 1986. They aren’t all in here, and there are a few years that I didn’t keep track of. But it’s still pretty thorough.

And… it functions kinda like a safety blanket. Or magical armor. Or at least something to occupy my hands.