Understanding sleep: Benefits and improvement ideas

In the contemporary world, the idea of staying up late - either working, partying or embracing the quiet of the night has been romanticised to an unhealthy extent. This creates a false sense of reality that approves and glorifies the lack of rest. Sleep, as we all know, is the ultimate necessity for our body to function properly. The lack of this is extremely dangerous and the underlying cause of various diseases. 

Despite knowing this reality, we sometimes choose to actively ignore it and indulge in activities that might not be in our best interest. This boils down to the fact that we may not realise how much sleep our body needs and how we can make sure we provide it with precisely that.

In an age driven by technology, it is not as exhausting to find a solution for anything. Sleep is no exception. To understand your sleeping patterns and to find a fix for your seemingly disoriented sleep cycle, gadgets like the smart ring health tracker have you covered. These wearable ring health trackers are like microcomputers that provide you with data about your fitness, stress levels, sleep activity and information related to your health such as oxygen levels and heart rate.

For all other details that you may need related to sleep and health, we’ve got your back! This article will take you through understanding sleep and how you can improve it.

How does a sleep-tracking ring work? 

A smart ring sleep tracker is essentially like an accessory that you wear on your fingers with the added advantage of health tracking. A combination of science and aesthetics, it provides utility to keep us updated about the internal workings of our body.

Since our bodies react differently during each stage of the day, they record those changes and present them in the form of data. These devices employ sensors to assess your body temperature, heart rate, blood oxygen level and respiration rate. 

Benefits of quality sleep

Sleep is indispensable, but with age, we are faced with the harsh realities of life and the quality of sleep goes for a toss. Waking up multiple times in the middle of the night to not getting any sleep at all, we have faced it all at one point in time. Sustained for a long time, it can cause serious trouble. However, quality sleep provides us with multiple benefits:

• Boosts energy and alertness: A good sleep helps you relax and replenishes your body. Energy levels are restored making you sharper and more focused on things that require your attention.
• Decreases stress levels: When you return home after a stressful day, it is only natural that your body craves sleep. Stress makes you irritable and may cause you to make rash decisions. Sleeping on it will help you be refreshed and make you more stable. It also helps you manage inflammation by reducing the cortisol in your body.
• Aids in sustaining a healthy weight: People who sleep less are more likely to be overweight. Insufficient sleep throws off the balance of ghrelin and leptin, the two hormones that regulate hunger. Thus, adequate sleep is important for weight loss or maintenance.
• Improves memory: The connections between neurons, known as synapses, contract every night you sleep, to lessen or erase the memories that are no longer in use. By carefully pruning synapses each night, you set yourself up for the formation of new memories the following day.
• Improves Mood: Ever wondered why mothers put their babies to sleep when they wouldn’t stop crying? Lack of sleep makes you cranky and puts you in a more vulnerable state. Adequate sleep improves your mood and reduces the risk of depression.

The ideal sleep duration time

The amount of sleep you need varies depending on factors such as age and lifestyle. As you grow older, the quantity of sleep you need decreases.

Infants need up to 17 hours of sleep. Children require 13 hours and adults need a minimum of 7-9 hours of sleep each day. People older than 65 years of age may just need 6-8 hours of sleep.

It is important to keep in mind that people in the same age range may also need a different amount of sleep each day for healthy functioning.

How smart rings track sleep

To track when you’re asleep, the smart sleep ring uses ‘Accelerometers’ that track your movement. Minimal to no movement indicates to the ring that you have fallen asleep. Even though this is a good indicator of sleep, it cannot be completely relied upon. Therefore, to build on this, the smart ring health tracker measures the changes in your heart rate, respiration and temperature. As you enter light sleep, respiration, heart rate and body temperature drop. They start to stabilise as you enter deep sleep and then gradually increase during the phase of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep.

By measuring these changes, the wearable ring health tracker comes up with data and statistics that help you analyse your sleep cycle and body clock.

Analysing sleeping data with smart rings

To analyse the data collected by the wearable ring health tracker, one must usually install an app linked to the device. After installation and syncing the two, the smart ring health tracker will present the collected data on the app. The figures will provide you insights on:

• The total duration of time you’ve spent in bed (sleeping and awake)
• Categorise your sleep into different stages - light sleep, deep sleep and REM
• Looks at how much time it took you to sleep after getting into bed
• Checks the number of times you’ve woken up during your sleep
• Calculates the percentage of time you’ve spent asleep in bed

With this data, you can look for patterns in your sleep schedule and identify what makes for better or worse sleep. It also helps you analyse when you slept the deepest. By collecting this data over time, you can adjust your habits and improve overall well-being.

How to select a sleep tracking ring?

After considering the options available in the market, it still might be difficult to choose the best smart ring for sleep tracking. One must take into account their budget, the features provided in a particular device, the comfort and design of a product, battery life and other such factors before making a purchase decision. It is also recommended that you go through customer reviews before buying a product.

Conclusion

Recognising the importance of quality sleep is significant in a fast-paced world. Better sleep helps you control blood sugar, improves mood and heart health and is responsible for various other functions in the body. 

After realising the importance, it is also mandatory to take steps to improve the quality of our sleep. A smart ring health tracker is a useful tool to help us do that by tracking and improving sleep patterns. They enhance your overall health and well-being by providing relevant data which will help you take measurable steps and put you on the way to a better night’s sleep.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is quality sleep important?

Good sleep is the foundation that helps the body perform important functions such as providing energy, mood regulation, maintaining weight and blood sugar levels and improving brain activity. Lack of sleep can lead to medical conditions such as depression, and obesity and increase the risk of heart disease.

What is considered the ideal sleep duration time?

A healthy functioning adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep each day. However, it is not necessary that you may need the same amount of sleep regularly. The number can also vary with each person despite being the same age.

How do smart rings track sleep?

Smart rings use sensors to track your sleep by monitoring your breathing, heart rate, body temperature and movement. With this information, they provide you the stats on sleeping habits.

How can smart rings help improve sleep?

One can make better decisions when presented with relevant information. When you gain insights into your sleeping habits and patterns regularly, you can make conscious efforts to recognise the flaws in them and make changes to improve them.

How do I select the right sleep-tracking ring?

The correct sleep-tracking ring is the one that fits your needs and wants perfectly. These may be based on your preferences of style, features, battery life, price and others.