The longer we are awake during the day, the higher our heart rate throughout the night

We know that heart rate throughout the night is a sign-post of health and recovery. So we asked, "is it true that the more we sleep, the lower the average heart rate is throughout the night?”

The data shows that this is not necessarily the case, and that includes our weekly work schedules and weekend opportunity to sleep in.

For example, on average, we spend the most wake-time on Fridays, and as the graph shows, our average heart rates are higher on Friday nights. During the corresponding Saturday mornings, we tend to sleep in and our sleep durations end up longer, yet our heart rates throughout the night are higher.

One possible explanation is an increase in REM sleep when the heart rate is generally elevated. Of course, “lifestyle” (alcohol and larger / later meals) also contribute to elevated heart rates measured on Friday and Saturday nights.

Daylight Saving Time (DST) creates a significant disruption in sleep schedules

For the last four years, Sleeptracker AI data has recorded significant disruption in sleep patterns during the fall when we wind the clock back, losing an hour of daylight. In comparison, the state of Arizona does not change its time for Daylight Saving Time. As a result, their data does not show a disruption.

The following link points to a recent discussion on "CBS This Morning" regarding the potential impacts of fall sleep disruption. youtu.be/Bk8zqWKeLy0

Daylight Saving Time Disrupts Our Sleep.

Daylight Saving Time disrupts our sleep. Twice a year, every year. Sleep Disruption! Arizona and Hawaii get it right! The data shows that the switch back and forth to and from Summertime affects us all, night owls as much as morning larks. Both are affected in the same way, on average about three weeks of sleep pattern disruption per year.

The data shows that there is a correlation between city size and REM sleep.

Las Vegas is an outlier, but we can all expect that: Who is in Las Vegas to sleep!

REM sleep is important to our sleep cycle because it stimulates the areas of your brain that are essential in learning and making or retaining memories. The importance of REM sleep, in particular, is attributed to the fact that during this phase of sleep, our brain exercises important neural connections which are key to mental and overall well-being and health. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, <https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Understanding-Sleep> a study depriving rats of REM sleep significantly shortened their life span, from two or three years to five weeks. Rats deprived of all sleep cycles lived only five weeks.

We all live in a sleep deprived society. Regardless of age. Here we studied sleep deficit from Fullpower’s PSG-level Sleeptracker AI platform. Of course we should all sleep longer, but the reality of modern life if that we only have so much of a “sleep budget” given the constraints of family, work, social media. Therefore a complementary focus is on quality of sleep: Improving sleep quality for better sleep is important. For that purpose, bedding, mattress quality, respiratory environment, temperature control are very important. Some of us sleep hot (mostly males) and some of us want to be warmer. All that is a potential big contribution to sleep quality. What we know as restful sleep.

Of note here, women typically average less of a sleep deficit than males.

This plot assumes a target sleep time of 8.5 hours for those under 22 and 8 hours for those above 22. In line with recommendations from the National Sleep Foundation: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need

It’s “conservative” for those under 22 meaning you could increase it and show even more of a deficit for that age group (just shifts the y-axis labels).

How the Monroe Earthquake Impacted Sleep Patterns in the Seattle Area

At Fullpower Labs, we were thinking about last week’s Seattle earthquake and doing some geographical distribution analysis. That earthquake hit right in the middle of our night. So many of those Sleeptracker users around Seattle got affected. Here is a graphical representation using the Sleeptracker AI-powered predictive analytics of how that sleep disruption developed.

Yes, less sunlight means more sleep!

At Fullpower Labs, we looked at the data. The Fullpower dataset includes 250 million nights of sleep. Sleep information from the Sleeeptracker Monitor is unique because it is fully contactless and non-invasive, yet still accurate to within 90%+ gold standard polysomnography. Data shows that continuous heart rate averaged throughout the night is minimized with 7.5 hours of sleep. From there, we find that on average, the answer to our question is 10.8% of deep sleep and 25.3% of REM sleep.

How much should we sleep, and what does the balance between REM and deep sleep look like in those conditions?

At Fullpower Labs, we looked at the data. The Fullpower dataset includes 250 million nights of sleep. Sleep information from the Sleeeptracker Monitor is unique because it is fully contactless and non-invasive, yet still accurate to within 90%+ gold standard polysomnography. Data shows that continuous heart rate averaged throughout the night is minimized with 7.5 hours of sleep. From there, we find that on average, the answer to our question is 10.8% of deep sleep and 25.3% of REM sleep.

Let the data speak! This week at Fullpower Labs, we continue to drill down our accurate multi-year data set that comprises 250+ million nights of sleep. We now discovered previously un-identified seasonal patterns correlating continuous Breathe and Heart Rate over a couple of years. The Fullpower Sleeptracker platform captures continuous breath and heart rate throughout the night. See here the weekly fluctuations day-by-day of breathing heart rate and heart rate.

Seasonal changes occur with higher breath rates in the summer and lower in the winter. This is similar to what was observed in this independent study in Japan, where Sleeptracker gives us much more supportive data. Here is the interesting Japan paper.

Our AI-powered analytics discovered these new correlations, and found the "inverse" breath correlations which seem to be published in this post for the first time ever as we couldn't find this science published anywhere! Fascinating power of our long term PSG-grade datasets and tools!

Seasonal Correlation of Breathing Rate and Heart Rate Through the Night

This week at Fullpower Labs, we continue to drill down our accurate multi-year data set that comprises 250+ million nights of sleep. We now discovered previously un-identified seasonal patterns correlating continuous Breathe and heart rate over a couple of years. The Fullpower Sleeptracker platform captures continuous breath and heart rate throughout the night.

Seasonal changes occur with higher breath rates in the summer and lower in the winter. This is similar to what was observed in this independent study in Japan. 

Our AI-powered analytics discovered this new correlation, and found the "inverse" breath correlations which seem to be published in this post for the first time ever as we couldn't find this science published anywhere! Fascinating power of our long term PSG-grade datasets and tools!

This week at Fullpower Labs, we continue to drill down our accurate multi-year data set that comprises 250+ million nights of sleep. We found some new interesting weekly patterns within the previously identified seasonal patterns. This infographic shows weekly zoomed-in in heart rate. The Fullpower Sleeptracker platform captures continuous heart rate throughout the night.

Seasonal changes occur with lower heart rates in the summer and higher in the winter. This same pattern was also observed in this independent study in Japan. Our AI-powered analytics discovered this independently, and then we found the very interesting Japan paper.

Notice week after week, there is a consistent weekly cycle with lower heart rates early in the week leading to higher heart rates on the weekends and then recovery. Interesting.

At Fullpower Labs, we analyzed our accurate multi-year data-set that comprises 250+ million nights of sleep. We found some interesting seasonal patterns. This infographic shows seasonal changes in heart rate. The Fullpower Sleeptracker platform captures continuous heart rate throughout the night completely non-invasively. Each individual fluctuation in the graph is a weekly max and min, the max being in general weekends (bedtime and wake-time discipline are laxer on weekends) and weekdays with a more disciplined schedule and less “distractions”. This is what we can observe:

Seasonal changes occur with lower heart rates in the summer and higher in the winter. This same pattern was also observed in this independent study in Japan. Our AI-powered analytics discovered this independently and then we found the very interesting Japan paper.

There’s a consistent weekly cycle throughout the year with lower heart rates during the week and higher on the weekends. There’s a significant dip after New Year’s, perhaps due to New Year’s resolutions (better diet, decreased alcohol, more disciplined sleep schedule), but eventually, it fizzles.

The data is in: The Spring time change to DST is the event that is the most disruptive to our sleep in 2019. The methodology that we used to make this determination is by analyzing bedtimes for the days following the time change. Our wake times tend to be fixed due to kid schedules, work schedules, and other obligations. Yet we have some latitude with our bedtime. The later we got to bed, the shorter our sleep opportunity. The data shows that it takes about two weeks in the Spring to get back to balance. That’s very disruptive.

P.S. Personally I hope that this year we stay on DST and do not revert in the fall.

Research shows that other mammals like humans have REM sleep stages and dream. However, cold-blooded animals such as fish and lizards do not. REM is the sleep-stage when we dream and restore our cognition to wake- up more refreshed in the morning.

The data shows a correlation between resting heart-rate and REM sleep. What the data clearly shows is that females tend to get more REM sleep.

The data shows a correlation between heart rate and sleep length. That's the length of actual sleep as opposed to the time spent in bed. This correlation could mean that 6.5 to 8 hours of sleep may be optimal for health. That's because resting heart rate is generally considered a signpost of wellness.

Of course, how those hours slept are broken down into REM and Deep Sleep is a factor. With 250 million nights of sleep analyzed powered by machine learning with Polysomnography-grade accuracy we are learning more every day and happy to share some of that knowledge with the community.

Women and men sleep differently on average. The data seems to show that females may pay more attention to the quality of their sleep. Both genders see a deterioration of their "Sleep Score" when they reach their 40s.

That’s possibly due to societal constraints as well as hormonal changes that are part of the aging process. Then of course, in general, our sleep improves as we age.

At Fullpower Labs, https://www.fullpower.com, we are looking at changes in sleep patterns and how they may change over time. With the benefit of the Fullpower medical-grade contactless bio-sensing non-invasive, non-intrusive AI-platform we are able to look at REM sleep, Deep Sleep for example.

This is the first in a series of analysis, looking at age groups. We left out teenagers, for now, as sleep patterns for teens are rather "particular". As we set our sleep goals over this may be an important consideration.

At Fullpower Labs, www.fullpower.com this week we were thinking about how much we sleep (and we don't sleep) each individual day of the week on average. So we did some distribution analysis.

Most of our www.sleeptracker.com sleepers have work schedules and are therefore bound by a fixed weekday schedule. Yet there are differences. Of course we tend to replenish our "sleep budget" on weekends. Yet there are statistically meaningful weekday patterns that we represent using the Sleeptracker AI-powered predictive analytics system in the following image!

Three years consecutively the data has shown that now that the US has “fallen back” we are likely to see disrupted sleep for two weeks in the Spring. The disruption is a little less in the fall. The Sleeptracker platform is analyzing and “machine learning” anonymized big sleep data during the next few weeks with tens of thousands of sleepers every night. Let the data speak!