I have a medical research sleep device (Zmax) and software that captures and scores raw eeg data. I’m taking courses to learn how to read the sleep data, it’s hard but I’m getting the hang of it.stjohnh wrote: ↑Fri Apr 02, 2021 8:42 pmSleep is more complex than most people think. There are several stages, and only the deeper stages give refreshing sleep. So a person can sleep 8 hours and still not be refreshed. It is not easy to determine how long each stage of sleep lasts for a particular individual. I spent a year monitoring my sleep with several different sleep monitoring setups. The best that I used was a chest strap that sends a signal for each heart beat to a phone app. The most useful parameter for evaluating sleep stage from heart data is the heart rate variation. The normal heart does not beat with absolute regularity. There are a few milliseconds difference between each normal heart beat. This is the heart rate variation, and apps can measure this. The Polar tracker is currently $53 on amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007S ... UTF8&psc=1
Wrist monitors (Fitbit, etc.) measure heart rate by pulse pressure, and that is not accurate enough to measure heart rate variation. You need a measure of the heart's electrical activity (chest strap).
I wouldn’t recommend this for everyone, but I’m a certain type of person and felt I needed to go down this path to really understand what is working and what is not. So far, it’s been insightful - particularly in assessing total sleep time. Even with mirapex, which materially reduces slow wave sleep, I am refreshed if I can get 7 hours. I just have to time it perfectly.
Further expanding on my rationale, long-term sleep research is nonexistant. And, for good reason, it’s just too expensive and invasive to hook people up to a PSG for 12 weeks. I’m not even sure I’ve seen a study where they do more than 5 days of PSG in a row. And, that’s just the start of the inherent limitations of studying sleep ina lab. In my eyes, this is just a space where our current methods of research have their limits.
I’m jinxing myself here, but I have gotten 4 nights of fully rested sleep in the last 7 days. I think it’s partly due to the meds and partly due to the understanding I have with my sleep. I felt what it feels like to feel normal again - something I never thought I’d feel again. I was so productive and charismatic - the world was so light. The past several months have been very difficult for me and that feeling really showed me that the person I was, before sh** hit the fan, is still there. But I digress.