Key Metrics To Help You Sleep

The key step in enhancing your well-being is sleep. If you take the time to track your body metrics during your healthy times, you'll see when your body is out of sorts even before you feel it. 

As a result, the sleep you're able to get has got to be the best it can possibly be. 

*NOTE: This post is intended to be purely educational and informational and not intended to replace the advice of any medical professional. If you're sick or have any concerns about your health, see a healthcare professional. If you believe you're experiencing a medial emergency, call emergency services. 

A few indicators that you're body is not getting the recovery it needs from day-to-day life are your resting heart rate, breaths per minute, and heart rate variability. 

Resting Heart Rate

Your resting heart rate is the number of times your heart beats in a minute when you're still. it typically ranges from 60 to 100. However, this will vary daily, and everyone's is different, based on age and fitness level.

Tracked over time, you can see the effects of stress on your body. Your resting heart rate average will increase during stressful times and will stay elevated while you sleep. As well as stress, alcohol or caffeine intake and fever usually raise your resting heart rate. Meditation usually lowers it. 

In addition, active people frequently have a lower resting heart rate.

Air temperature and medications can also affect heart rate.

Ideally, your sleeping heart rate will be below your daytime resting heart rate. During times of illness, you'll see your heart rate increase, even when you sleep. 

Furthermore, over time you'll see how your heart responds to exercise and how many calories from fat you burn versus calories for cardiovascular exercise. This can be tracked with a Fitbit or other wearable tracking device. 

Heart Rate Variability

Heart rate variability is the time between heartbeats. Your autonomic nervous system affects the timing of each heartbeat. 

Heart rate variability varies by individual and is affected by age, gender, sleep, hormones, circadian rhythm, and lifestyle choices, including caffeine, alcohol, exercise, stress. 

Studies have shown that a higher heart rate variation is associated with better health. A significant drop in heart rate variation can be indicative of stress, strain, or potential sign of illness.

Breaths Per Minute

Your body usually adjusts your breathing rate to ensure you get enough oxygen. It's typically 12 to 20 breaths per minute. Breathing rate is affected by age, gender, weight, lung and heart conditions, anxiety, and fever.

Monitoring your breaths per minute during sleep is valuable for tracking your well-being. Your breathing won't vary significantly night to night. Therefore a small increase in the average during sleep could be important.

Comfort

Maintaining comfort while you sleep helps ensure that you get high quality sleep during the time you're asleep. Not everybody can sleep through 8 hours without waking up. However, if you can get uninterrupted sleep for a significant block of time during the time that you're in bed, you can positively influence your well-being. 

Your bedding environment, from how it's decorated to ensuring that you have the proper pillow and mattress firmness for your body, is critical to giving your body the rest it needs to handle daily stress and the times when illness occurs. 

If you don't know what pillow is right for, we have a free quiz that walks you through the selection process. The quiz has helped thousands of people find the right pillow for them. It can help you too!