How do you measure sleep quality?
For patients who are sleep deprived, the best way for them to discover why is through participating in a polysomnography — or sleep study.
Hospitals and sleep center studies measure:
- Brain waves
- Oxygen levels in the blood
- Heart rate
- Breathing rate
- Eye movements
- And leg movements
These studies offer a baseline measure of their current sleep patterns and habits.
Patients can also track their own daily sleep habits using sleep tracking apps and smart devices. When tracked over several weeks, sleep and other health data can reveal what is disrupting a patient’s sleep patterns.
How does sleep tracking work in Well World?
Your patients can manually track their sleep in the Well World app under the Body section in the app.
Under the Sleep option, patients can track the number of hours they slept, number of times they woke up, the quality of sleep and time they went to bed.
In your Well World practitioner portal, you can click on your patient’s name and see the sleep statistics they tracked.
Using other sleep trackers with Well World
If your patients use wearable or smart devices to track their sleep, you can also have them sync their data with Well World.
The Well World platform can sync with any device that works with Apple health, Google Fit and FitBit.
For tracking more in-depth sleep numbers, your patients can also use devices such as:
- non-contact sleep monitors
- sleep mats
- audio recording apps
These can all track movement, heart rate and breathing rates.
Comparing patients sleep stats with other data
Looking at your patient’s other health habits alongside their sleep patterns can give you more insight into why they are not sleeping well at night.
- Food tracking – if they indulge in heavier meals or drink alcohol on the weekend, you know that can disrupt their regular sleep patterns.
- Meditation – are they tracking their meditation? Or have they fallen off track with this practice? Do they practice on certain days but not others? If there are inconsistencies, look at their sleep tracking. See if there are sleep disruptions on the days that they didn’t meditate.
- Exercise – Do they exercise daily? or are they in a start-and-stop pattern? Exercise can support healthier sleep patterns when performed consistently.
- Condition – Are your patients tracking more aches and pains on days that their sleep is shorter or disrupted? Or do they have mood swings or other complaints? You can help them identify patterns with their sleep and their body conditions.
- Blood glucose – are there notable changes in their blood glucose levels compared with how they sleep at night? Fewer hours of sleep can translate into worse blood glucose readings.
When you compare sleep data with other habits, you’ll likely find changes that your patients can make to improve their rest and wake up feeling more refreshed.
Good sleep allows a body to detoxify waste in the brain, repair cells and reduce inflammation and stress levels. When you can get patients to start tracking their sleep and teach them the importance of sleep hygiene, you can help them reach their health goals faster.
