Calm · 5 min
Two weeks of sleep notes
A few lines each morning for two weeks shows what is really happening at night, and gives a doctor something to work with.
When sleep has been poor for a while, the nights blur together and every one seems bad. A short note each morning, kept for two weeks, turns the blur into a picture. It is often the first thing a doctor will ask for.
The steps
Four small steps,in your own time.
Keep a notebook or a note on your phone by the kettle, not by the bed, so you write it in the morning rather than checking the clock at night.
Each morning, write five things: roughly when you went to bed, roughly when you fell asleep, how many times you woke, when you got up, and how rested you feel from one to five.
Add one line about the day before: caffeine after lunch, alcohol, a nap, exercise, a worry, a broken night caring for someone.
After two weeks, read it through once and look for patterns, then take it with you if you see a doctor or nurse about your sleep.
The reason
Why it helps
Notes in the morning are rough, and that is fine: the aim is a pattern, not a measurement. Seeing two weeks on a page often shows that some nights are better than you remember, and points to the habits that tend to come before the worse ones. It also makes a short appointment far more useful.
A gentle variation
If writing every day feels like one more job, use three marks only: a tick for a good night, a dash for an ordinary one, a cross for a poor one. Even that, over two weeks, tells a story.
WE · TRIBE
Try itwith someone.
If you share a bed or a home, ask the other person to add what they noticed: snoring, talking, restless legs, getting up. They often see what you cannot. If you care for someone whose sleep is poor, you can keep the same notes for them, with them.
Try it today
Tomorrow morning, write five lines about last night's sleep, and leave the notebook by the kettle.
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