I’ve recently bought a new smartwatch and it explains why I’m so tired. It seems the amount of deep sleep I get is just under 1 hour each night. This is regardless of the fact I have slept a substantial amount of time last night to see if that would help. My REM sleep is super high, what can I do to get more deep sleep? I worry as both my grandparents have had Alzheimer’s and I’ve seen that deep sleep or lack of can be linked to it. I am a bit of a stress head and I’ve started back trying to exercise more (like use to before having my baby -now a toddler) to combat the stress.
Hey Jamie,
It’s important to keep in mind that smartwatches are not an accurate tool for measuring sleep stages. They guesstimate which stage you’re in based on factors such as movement and heart rate, but the only way to actually measure sleep stages is by measuring the brain waves directly (part of Polysomnography, commonly refereed to as a sleep study).
There are a variety of reasons you may be tired. What do you consider to be a substantial time of sleep? It’s possible you need more sleep than you think, especially if you’ve just started exercising again. I would also recommend taking this quiz to determine your chronotype, some people are genetically wired to sleep at different times and need to adjust their sleep schedule accordingly.
I’d recommend trying to dial in your sleep hygiene, figure out your chronotype, and to keep exercising and finding ways to manage your stress. If you’re still tired during the day, then I’d consult a doctor and get an actual sleep study done.
Keep us updated!