What is your sleep GPA? When it comes to sleep, we generally only report on how many hours we got the night before. However, sleep is much more complex and nuanced than this, and it’s time we took a closer look.
Sleep is essential to the body. During sleep, the body has a chance to repair, prune and strengthen neural connections, reduce inflammation, and a host of other important bodily functions. Without it, people wouldn’t be able to function. It occupies approximately 1/3 of a human’s life, so even just as a percentage, sleep is extremely important.
When asked how they slept, people often respond with a statement about how many hours of sleep they got. Like many things in life, quantity doesn’t capture the whole picture. Sleep is no different. Keeping tabs on how many hours of sleep per night is a great place to start when taking inventory, but it doesn’t capture some of the most important aspects of sleep.
Some aspects of sleep quality that are often overlooked include:
These aspects can indicate how well or poorly a person has slept, in a more nuanced fashion than simply tracking hours slept. Number of times awakened during the night, for example, has a major bearing on how rested an individual will feel upon waking up for the day.
Here's an image of someone with normal sleep (blue) vs someone with a sleep disorder (red) - the difference is huge!
We have all had the experience of waking up and feeling dead-tired, or of waking up lightly with ample energy. What isn’t common knowledge is that the experience of waking up in the morning is strongly connected to the timing of sleep cycles. If your alarm goes off in the middle of deep sleep, for example, your body has a lot more to overcome the feeling of tiredness than if you wake halfway through a light-sleep cycle. Tracking sleep quality and sleep cycles is an easy way to improve energy levels upon waking up, as well as facilitate more restorative sleep habits.
Okay, so here is a basic outlay of what the grading system will look like for sleep. Now that you understand a bit more about what makes up a sleep episode, you can take stock of how your current routines, environment, and practices place you on the grading scale.
A – 4.0
B – 3.0
C – 2.0
D – 1.0
F – do you really need a number for this one?
If you had to give yourself one grade, what would it be? In the very least, this process helps identify which aspects are very important for supporting quality sleep, and which areas could use a tune-up.
Maybe your environment for sleep is spot-on, but your routine is not supportive. Or vice versa. Check out your grade, and see your current SLEEP GPA.