What is a Sleep Diary
A sleep diary is a record of your sleep that includes all of the aspects of your sleep. Sleep diaries might be requested of you by your doctor or a sleep center in order to get more accurate data about your sleeping habits. They can be extremely important in identifying the causes of sleep problems or conditions.
Sleep diaries includes data about:
- Your sleep quality
- Your patterns of sleep
- Your pre-sleep habits
Even if not requested by your doctor, it's a good idea to keep one if you are struggling with sleep - it really only takes a few minutes each day.
When and Why to Use a Sleep Diary
The main reason to keep a sleep diary is to identify all factors about your sleep, usually in order to:
- Find a root cause for lack of sleep
- Find a root cause for poor sleep quality
- Gather data for a doctor or sleep center
- Understand patterns in your sleep
What’s Included in a Sleep Diary
Usually, the following items are kept in a sleep diary:
- Time you got in bed
- Time you woke up
- Estimated time taken to fall asleep
- How restful sleep was
- Number of times you roused during the night, and why you roused
- Amount of coffee consumed
- Amount of alcohol consumed
- Amount of exercise
- Things you did in hour leading up to bed
If you are trying to identify other aspects of your day that contribute to your sleep, then you should include those as well.
Red Flags When Reviewing Your Sleep Diary
Some things to pay attention to in your sleep diary are:
- Are you getting at least 7 hours of sleep consistently?
- Are you feeling catastrophically tired when you wake up?
- Are you rousing throughout the night?
- Are you drinking excessive amounts of coffee or alcohol?
- Are you nighttime activities conducive to sleep?
In the activity of analyzing your sleep diary, what you are looking for are patterns. A sleep specialist or doctor can assist you in doing this. If you are struggling with sleep and want to get in contact with one of our sleep health specialists, start by taking this online sleep test:
