The Sleeptracker-AI team looked at irregular sleep patterns on 500,000 nights of sleep and consistent bedtimes, which led to better sleep quality.

This is important because a new study has found that not sticking to a regular bedtime and wake-up schedule — and getting different amounts of sleep each night — can put a person at higher risk for obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, high blood sugar, and other metabolic disorders, in fact, for every hour of variability in time to bed and time asleep, a person may have up to a 27% greater chance of experiencing a metabolic abnormality.

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/study-links-irregular-sleep-patterns-metabolic-disorders

Our sleep is disrupted when we snore or experience breathing anomalies like sleep apnea or asthma. Likewise, if we sleep with a partner, our partner's sleep is also disrupted. Therefore, looking for viable solutions to respond to snoring or address sleep apnea is important for our sleep and our partner's sleep.

In a large Sleeptracker-AI study of 600,000+ nights of sleep, sleep quality was inversely related to the severity of breathing anomalies during the night. Those with fewer breathing anomalies during the night spent more of the night in REM and Deep Sleep phases and less of the night awake than those experiencing more breathing anomalies.  

Mayo Clinic Sleep Apnea Diagnostics:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sleep-apnea/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20377636

The Holidays: Expect More Snoring & Higher Heart Rates!

In a www.sleeptracker-ai.com study of over 1.5 million nights of sleep through the '20/'21 Holiday season, we see the impact on our sleep patterns, including more snoring and higher heart rates. On average, we see the same trends developing for the '21/'22 Holiday season. 'Lifestyle' choices, such as food, alcohol consumption, and activity levels, are likely the primary reasons for these trends and may suggest simple, actionable insights for improving our overall health.

Here are a couple of telling studies: 

Holiday Season and Weekend Effects on Stroke Mortality: A Nationwide Cohort Study Controlling for Stroke Severity. Patients admitted during holiday seasons had higher mortality risks than those admitted on weekends and weekdays. Moreover, this holiday season effect persisted even after adjusting for stroke severity and other important confounders. These findings highlight the need for healthcare delivery systems with a consistent quality of round‐the‐clock care for patients admitted for stroke.

Effect of the Holiday Season on Weight Gain: A Narrative Review. The holiday season seems to increase body weight in adults, even in participants seeking to lose weight and in motivated self-monitoring people.

A new, very large study confirms that a cooler room yields more REM sleep!
(https://www.sleeptracker.com/)

A very large Fullpower-AI study of over 1,750,000 nights of sleep shows that the air temperature of our bedroom impacts our sleep. On nights when our bedroom air temperature is cooler than usual, we get more sleep, and a more significant percentage of that sleep is spent in REM Sleep. That's much better than the nights when our bedroom air temperature is warmer.

In short, on average, the data shows that decreasing our bedroom air temperature at night leads to better sleep.

Here are a few helpful links:

General sleep air temperature information:
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/bedroom-environment/best-temperature-for-sleep

"The best bedroom temperature for sleep is approximately 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3 degrees Celsius). This may vary by a few degrees from person to person, but most doctors recommend keeping the thermostat set between 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6 to 19.4 degrees Celsius) for the most comfortable sleep."

Climate change and sleep impact study (deviations from mean temperature are investigated)
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1601555

"Our analysis of historical data demonstrates a robust link between atypical nightly temperatures and insufficient sleep that is largest during the summer and among lower-income individuals and the elderly. Moreover, across both our city-level and geographic grid cell–level forecasts, we predict that every location in the United States may experience an increased incidence of insufficient sleep due to nighttime warming induced by future climate change."

Another abstract that is interesting:

Associations of bedroom temperature and ventilation with sleep quality
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23744731.2020.1756664?src=recsys&journalCode=uhvc21

"Sleep efficiency (ratio of time asleep to time in bed) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (%) were both negatively correlated with bedroom operative temperature; as bedroom operative temperature increases by 1 K, the estimate of sleep efficiency and REM sleep percentage decrease by 1.036% and 1.647%, respectively."

Some mornings we easily pop out of bed, and others, we lie in bed - Why?

A large Fullpower-AI study shows that our nightly heart rate deviations from typical correlate with how long we spend in bed after waking in the morning.  This analyses study is 370,000+ nights of sleep.

We know from our past research that several factors can influence a person's sleep (alcohol consumption, sickness, stress) and that these factors often manifest as a change in heart rate.  In this study, we consider continuous heart rate as a proxy for a good night's sleep.  The assumption is that if the sleeper's heart rate is elevated or reduced from typical, it might suggest some sleep disruption. 

The plots show a user's time in bed after waking (blue) and sleep quality index (red) on a given night vs. the number of standard deviations from the mean of a user's heart rate.

In a large Sleeptracker-AI study of over 350,000 nights of sleep, we find that demographics significantly impact the time it takes us to fall asleep. Obviously, the data shows that age groups and sexes matter; however, it is evident from the data, that our digital life significantly impacts our bedroom routines. For many of us, Netflix, gaming, and social media have become our nightly ceremonial.

Pandemic 2021: In a 2.5-year horizontal study of more than 25,000,000 nights of sleep, people's sleep routines seem to be returning to “normal” after a year of significant change. Presumably, this could be due to re-opening and people re-engaging in their pre-pandemic lives. Specifically, in general, people slept longer during the pandemic until about February 2021, at which point sleep routines have been gradually returning to normal.

This Fullpower-AI study based on 350,000+ nights of sleep clearly shows the disruptive impact that snoring has on bed partners. Research shows that disrupted sleep affects performance and relationships. Snoring, apnea, pre-diabetes, and diabetes are some of the leading physiological causes of recurring disruptions. For example, minimizing snoring or bathroom breaks during the night may help with more restful sleep. This study is possible because the Sleeptracker-AI.com platform supports two sleepers in real-time.

The relationship between Sleep quality and Diabetes

An in-depth look at snoring

In this large Fullpower-AI study of 400,000+ nights of sleep, the data shows that heavy snoring and more serious conditions are correlated. Nearly everyone snores now and then, but for some people, it can be a chronic problem. Sometimes, it may also indicate a serious health condition. Also, snoring can be a nuisance to your partner.

Here are a couple of clinical studies for further reading:

Here is a study that links Apnea to more light sleep:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6026090/

And a study showing that there is indeed a correlation between the intensity of snoring and OSA (obstructive sleep apnea):
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2952752/

A Fullpower-AI study of 1+ million nights of sleep finds that during COVID years (2020 and 2021), we ignore the clock's time and stick with the sun at the spring daylight saving time change compared to non-COVID years (2018 and 2019). A possible explanation is we have fewer commitments and events in COVID years. Our bedtimes are often directly correlated to our wake times.

A large Fullpower-AI study of 300,000+ nights of sleep, leveraging the new polysomnography-grade Fullpower-AHI platform, confirms that breathing anomalies while we sleep become more prevalent as we age and BMI increases. Males are significantly more susceptible than females. Breathing anomalies while we sleep, including apnea, are important indicators of potential serious wellness challenges. Loud snoring can often be a precursor of sleep apnea.

Here are a few relevant studies:

1. How Obstructive Sleep Apnea Correlates to Age

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2921601/

2. Age-Group-Specific Associations between the Severity of Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Relevant Risk Factors in Male and Female Patients

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4161416/

3. Effects of Age on Sleep Apnea in Men

https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1164/ajrccm.157.1.9706079

4. Obstructive sleep apnea is a common disorder in the population—a review on the epidemiology of sleep apnea

https://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/4797/5202

Correlation is not Causation: A new Fullpower-AI study of 850,000+ nights of sleep shows that there is a statistical relationship between minutes of nightly snoring and BMI. This does not mean causation. Snoring is a sleep disruptor. Studies have linked sleep disruption to wellness and weight management challenges.

Here is a Mayo Clinic article about snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Snore less, lose weight? In a study of more than 850,000 nights of sleep, the data shows weight, height, BMI, and snoring are all correlated. Clinical studies have shown that better sleep helps with weight management. In particular, snoring less often means better sleep. Could less snoring translate into better weight management?

Here is a link to a medical study that shows how deprived sleep can lead to weight gain:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20357041/

More information about snore, sleep apnea, COPD, and sleep optimization: https://fullpower-ai.com/

Snoring and Apnea update: In a study of over 850,000 nights of sleep, Sleeptracker-AI finds that snoring is prevalent. Addressing snoring is important for several reasons:

1. Snoring can affect our health: Snoring could lead to more serious conditions. Sometimes it can be a symptom of a condition where people experience brief pauses of breathing during sleep, causing a drop in oxygen levels. Here is a publication from Harvard Medical School that describes some of the potential effects of snoring on health:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/why-snoring-could-be-a-sign-your-heart-is-at-risk

2. Snoring can affect our relationships: A snoring partner can impact your health. Disrupted sleep is correlated to potentially serious health conditions

COVID SEASON: A Sleeptracker-AI study of over 10 million nights of accurately recorded and analyzed data shows that 2020/2021 is different from the two prior years:

1. Our heart rate through the night is lower on average during this "COVID Holiday season" than the last two.
2. On average, we slept longer during this "COVID holiday season" than the last two.
3. As expected, we traveled less this year, especially during the Thanksgiving holiday.

This study supports some of the following recently published media articles:

@The Atlantic

@The Washington Post

Research shows that there are meaningful benefits for both sexes in practicing regularly vigorous exercise such as HIIT (high Intensity Interval training). In a very large study of over 100,000 nights of sleep, those who exercised vigorously snored significantly less on average. Typically, females snore less than males. Vigorous exercise benefits both. Snoring is often a precursor to more serious breathing anomalies.

This infographic speaks for itself. When the clock rolls back for DST, we tend to sleep more. Therefore the effect on sleep on election night is even more pronounced than it appears. Democracy at work! This study is based on more than 20,000 sleepers daily.

We live in a sleep-deprived society. Fortunately, we seem to be equipped with sophisticated mechanisms that may help us catch up on our REM sleep deficit. REM rebound is the lengthening and increasing frequency and depth of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep which occurs after periods of sleep deprivation. When people have been prevented from experiencing REM, they take less time than usual to attain the REM state. When people are unable to obtain an adequate amount of REM sleep, the pressure to obtain REM sleep builds up. This large study is based on the analysis of more than 4,000,000 nights of sleep.

Research links serious health conditions such as diabetes, depression, hypertension, apnea, heart disease, stroke, and more to disrupted sleep. Getting up multiple times during the night may have implications on the quality of our sleep, and our overall health.

This is important to everyone's health: Males are twice more likely than females to suffer from "respiratory events". These include Apnea, COPD, OSA, and more. As we age the following Sleeptracker-AI large study finds that we are all more impacted. However, females continue to do significantly better than males.

Here are the first complete three years of large clinical-grade sleep studies covering over 10 million recorded nights of sleep in high-fidelity. Three years of sleep information gives us reasonable assurances that the "abnormal" sleep and physiological patterns in 2020 may be correlated to the novel-Coronavirus pandemic. Some key findings include an initial increase in sleep duration with shelter-in-place. That pattern then tapers off but continues as the economy re-opens. The small increase in continuous heart-rate throughout the night may point to the fact that although the pandemic creates a very stressful environment and therefore would tend to elevate heart-rates, longer sleep duration may more than compensate. The longer sleep duration is also correlated with flexible work schedules, school schedules, and more.

We looked at three years of data and broke it down by latitude tranches. The data clearly shows seasonality as well as the influence of latitude on actual sleep duration. Now observing 2020 we can see the significant impact that the coronavirus pandemic and shelter-in-place are having on our sleep.

Studies show that both ambient temperature and circadian rhythms are important factors for sleep quality. Note that in the summer for any given time zone and longitude, daylight lasts later in the higher latitudes. For example, sunset, today in San Diego, is about 7:30 while in Seattle it's 8:30, Pacific. The 2018 and 2019 data shows what is "normal" on average. The 2020 dataset shows the Coronavirus-induced singularities.

Three years of complete sleep history allows us to compare 2020 sleep patterns to historic 2019 and 2018 sleep patterns. Three years of data now clearly confirm that in 2020 during shelter-in-place, on average, we sleep more, go to bed later, and wake up later. As we gradually reopen the patterns seem to trend to normalize.

As the US economy reopens, we looked at the anonymized data to find some indicators of behavioral changes. The metric that we used was to look at the sleeping habits before, during, and after shelter-in-place. During shelter-in-place most stayed put. When reopening happened patterns started to trend towards normalized. What is remarkable is the impact of Memorial day weekend. We will continue to monitor these trends.

With the power of several million nights of PSG-grade sleep information anonymized in the cloud (over 100 million nights of sleep) and the built-in Sleeptracker®-AI analytics, we looked at the impact of COVID-19 on snoring. Snoring is a very important metric as it is typically a precursor of serious conditions such as apnea or COPD. The Data shows that during shelter-in-place, on average, we sleep more, but, and that is very intriguing, we snore less. When we drilled down into how different this is for females and males we were very surprised to see the differences As we gradually reopen, the patterns seem to trend to normalize. The spikes are weekends when, on average, we tend to go to bed later and rise later. The Fullpower contact-less bio-sensing solution, like PSG, can actually correlate metrics such as AHI (Apnea-Hypopnea Index), which opens fascinating research opportunities given our very large multi-year PSG-grade sleep dataset.

Previously we showed that with shelter-in-place on average we sleep longer, get more REM sleep, get less deep sleep and we snore less. We looked at the data to see whether shelter-in-place had changed the number of times we had gotten out of bed each night and/or how long we stayed out of bed. We looked at each age group. We went through more than half a million nights of sleep and could not measure a difference. It may be because of our out-of-bed events, as the data shows are more a function of aging and some chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Of course, we are continuing to look at the data as shelter-in-place gets eased and new normality develops. Sleep is one-third of our lives and a great indicator of our overall wellness and stress levels as well as some chronic health conditions. What we saw in the data is that as we age, males tend to have more disrupted sleep than females. However, younger females tend to have more disrupted sleep than males.

Previously we reported that the data shows, before and after shelter-in-place, our sleep patterns changed. On average we sleep longer get more REM sleep but get less deep sleep. In this analysis, we look at the data and observe that since sheltering-in-place we snore less. That's true for females and males. Males tend to snore more than females as the analytics shows and Snore is a precursor to apnea and COPD. The www.fullpower.com solution can pinpoint apnea, asthma, COPD. For this infographic, there are potentially several explanations for the decrease in snoring. Scientifically, we learned that snoring tends to happen more during deeper sleep phases. Therefore less deep sleep could correlate to less snoring although we sleep longer with shelter-in-place. Of course, all of this needs to be investigated farther. The data shows that on average for both females and males shelter-in-place has decreased snoring! This study is based on over 300,000+ nights of recorded and analyzed sleep by Sleeptracker®-AI. The peaks are the weekends and the troughs are the weekdays in both sleep and snoring.

Shelter-in-place is affecting our sleep patterns on average. More dreaming (REM Sleep) and less physical recovery (Deep Sleep), although we are sleeping more. The dataset is over 500,000 nights of sleep. That’s because the www.fullpower.com solution is AI-cloud based and uses powerful built-in mining tools. And why could all this be happening? One possibility may be increased stress and angst due to the seriousness of the pandemic as well as potentially less physical activity. More to come. Stay tuned.

A silver lining: with shelter-in-place directives we are getting more of much-needed sleep! This should help strengthen our immune system and improve our health! The data may also show that people's bedtime hasn't changed much, but with fewer constraints, schools closed and many workplaces closed, people, in general, have relaxed their wakeup time. We will look into this more. Stay tuned! More information at www.fullpower.com

Trends and future events are important. Of course, the flu, colds, and recovery are part of our daily lives. Our Sleeptracker-AI tools looked at our sleep vitals in a multiyear aggregation. We used Sleeptracker labeled data and Fullpower's AI-powered supervised machine learning tools to help us interpolate, extrapolate and perhaps anticipate!

Deep Sleep is when we recover and rebuild, strengthen our immune system. The data could show what many thought intuitively: Pets could be good for us! The data also shows that sharing the bed with pets, in general, may improve deep sleep significantly. This stands as a challenge to some of the opinion-based sleep coaching. The data is clear for our large group of single Sleeptracker users: live with your pets and you may benefit from a more deep sleep. Females benefit even more than males. The data show that is true for both dogs and cats!

Here is a possible evolutionary explanation, if there is one. Alone in paleo times, solitary, one had to be on guard for the cave bear or the saber tooth tiger. That meant light sleep while monitoring sound in the background. With a dog, for example, we naturally allow ourselves to sleep deeper by relaxing more, trusting our pet to be our eyes and ears. Hence a potential evolutionary explanation of more deep sleep with a furry companion.