News Archive Articles from MESD News and Other Sources
We all know that sleep is important to nearly every aspect of our health and wellbeing. (If you need to be convinced, look at this from the National Institutes of Health (https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd/why) We also know that screens/monitors of all types can have a negative impact on sleep. What about turning that around by using a smart phone to improve your sleep? Two members of the Wellness Committee use apps to improve sleep. Margo Lalich in School Health Services uses the tool that is built into the updated iPhone system. If you go to the “clock”, click on Bedtime. Going through the prompts will help you set up your bedtime and the time you want to wake up. You can choose how far ahead of bedtime you want to be prompted to start getting ready. You can choose your wake up time, which shows how much sleep time you will get. Finally, you choose the sound that will wake you. This tool is simultaneously scientific and intuitive. It makes you aware of how many hours of sleep you get. Margo said, “It makes me more intentional about my sleep pattern.” She has been going to sleep and waking up more consistently. You can choose from several wake up sounds. Each one is designed to wake a sleeper gently. The sound starts softly and gets louder. It’s not jarring. Margo is a public health professional who pays attention to research and health. She said she is motivated by the way consistent sleep makes her feel, and the science validates it.. Bradley Leininger, at Donald E. Long, has been using an app called Sleep Cycle. This app is available for free at iTunes and Google Play. https://www.sleepcycle.com/how-it- works/ Sleep Cycle uses your phone’s built-in microphone and accelerometer to track REM sleep cycles. Features like intelligent snooze allow you to set a time to wake up, like “between 6:00-6:30”, and it will wake you when you are at your lightest sleep during that window of time. When you wake up, you self rate your sleep quality. The phone can also check your heart rate when you wake up, if you hold your hand over the light. (Can you believe our modern technology?!) Bradley has used Sleep Cycle for a couple of months. At the beginning, he often had a 46% sleep quality rating. Sleep Cycle asks questions so you can start to track the relationship between what you’re doing and how you’re sleeping. As a result, Bradley now avoids eating food or drinking coffee late at night. His very best sleep was rated 97%. He said, “You know it’s working when you see regular peaks and valleys on the chart.” If you have tips on sleep, please let us know. You can email [email protected] and we will include information on the Wellness page in January.
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February 2024
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