If you’re an analytical mind who over-processes everything, you’re just like me. And if you’re just like me, tracking your sleep could be the best improvement to your productivity and mental health since the invention of therapy. But just like New Year’s resolutions, you can’t just start a regiment and expect it to stick for long. Building healthy sleeping habits is best done one night at a time — improving by 1% each day.

Why Sleep Tracking Was Important for Me

During my freshman year at business school, I would wake up at 4:30 in the morning, walk ten minutes through empty streets to the train, and go to the school’s gym at 5:30 AM. Any other time it would have been filled to the brim, and my logic was…

If all successful entrepreneurs wake up early in the morning, start their day off with a workout, and spend their money only when absolutely necessary — I should too.

My new habit of waking up way before sunrise was a life changer — but only for the first day. After 10, 20, and 40 days, it became extremely difficult to stay consistent and I really wanted to give up. That was when I decided to dig a bit deeper into my fatigue and found out that sleep tracking could improve my quality of sleep, which then improved my overall health.

Since then, I’ve been tracking my sleep for over three years with the Sleep Cycle app. Thanks to this app and the data and features it provides, I’ve consistently been improving both my sleep and all-around health.

Sleep Tracking Takeaways

#1. Replace Your Alarm with the In-App Alarm

The ‘Radar’ default alarm sound on our iPhones is probably the worst sound to ever exist (Android users are the lucky ones here). But that isn’t the only reason you should swap to Sleep Cycle as your default alarm.

If you swap to using Sleep Cycle as an alarm, you make it a habit to start your tracking before bed every night. Shutting down my alarms through the native clock app and forcing myself to use Sleep Cycle helped me keep the ever-so-important consistency in my routine. Even on the nights you don’t need to wake up at a specific time, you’re still in the habit of opening up your app before bed and starting tracking.

Suggested: The Habit That’s Making Your Vacations Less Enjoyable

#2. Ease Into Your Mornings

Sleep Cycle is amazing because it lets you ease into your morning alarm. From up to 45 minutes before your scheduled wake-up time, the app’s intelligent tracking will slowly wake you up at the best times during your sleep phase.

Using this feature helped me wake up calmer than when a siren suddenly bursts out first thing in the morning. The wake-up phase eases you into your alarm by gradually building up its intensity. Over time, waking up became more of a flow into consciousness and helped decrease grogginess in the mornings.

#3. Wake Up to Sunshine

The biggest feature that made me try Sleep Cycle Premium was the integration with Philips Hue lightbulbs. It lets you sync up your wake-up phase with your bulbs and gradually ramp up the ambient light in your bedroom.

I personally enjoy the Philips Hue White and Color Ambience lights over the standard ones. They both work the same when linked with the Sleep Cycle app, but the added colors are great for your bedtime ritual and reading in bed under calm pink or purple light.

The warm light peeking through your eyelids in the morning helps your body wake up how we’re biologically programmed to — in sync with the sunrise. Similar to how a sunrise alarm clock works, the emulation of the sun rising over the horizon helps you take control of your circadian rhythm and wake up feeling refreshed.

Suggested: Philips Hue White and Color Ambience

#4. Pay Attention to Your Sleep Regularity

A great way to measure how much control you have over your circadian rhythm is through your regularity. This measures how consistent your bedtime and wake-up times have been. The higher the percentage, the more consistent your sleeping habits are.

I make it a habit to check how my regularity is doing and what trends I notice. If I find that my regularity has been dropping off the past few days, I refocus my attention on bringing that number back up. This is perfect for those moments when you feel like you’re losing control — it’s a great measure to see if you’re falling out of your sleep habit and need to refocus.

#5. Find Areas of Improvement by Identifying Sleep Cycles

Observing the data frequently within the app helps me stay aware of what causes good and bad nights. The sleep quality score is a measure of how good your sleep was for the night. This isn’t a perfect science — don’t look at too intensely — but it's great when looking at the trends and averages.

I like looking at how the weather impacts my sleep quality. There isn’t much I can do to change the weather, but it gives me some ease of mind when I see a few snowflakes knowing that my sleep is gonna be amazing that night.

Again, this isn’t a perfect science, so use this information just to guide your thoughts. Noticing that your sleep quality drops in the winter or is better during the rain could be a sign for you to get a humidifier.

It’s the little bits of data that can get your mind rolling with ideas to get that 1% improvement for the day.

I’ve tried plenty of humidifiers, but this Elechomes Humidifier is the best humidifier for creating comfy sleeping environments. It’s super quiet, lasts the whole night, and has warm mist and aromatic features that have helped me fall asleep faster. I prevented my annual sleep quality drop-off this winter after getting mine:

Suggested: Elechomes Humidifier

#6. Identify Your Ideal Sleep Time

Before tracking my sleep, I had trouble figuring out what my sleep schedule should be. After tracking for over three years, I can now look back on my data and see where I felt my best to determine this is how much sleep I need to feel happy.

I’m taking my sleep tracking even further after getting an Apple Watch Ultra. I can now use Sleep Cycle without phone distractions in the middle of the night and don’t even have to turn on tracking before bed every night. Sleep Cycle with my Apple Watch has added automatic tracking, heart rate data, and a lovely vibration alarm to my slumbers.

Suggested: Apple Watch Ultra

Is Sleep Tracking Worth It?

If you’re not overwhelmed by data and love looking at data and statistics, I would highly recommend implementing sleep-tracking habits to improve your productivity. Not only does it hold you accountable, but it gives you insights you never would have noticed without it.

Over the past three years, I’ve personally noticed changes in my productivity and mental health thanks to my sleep habits.

Is Sleep Cycle Premium Worth It?

I would recommend Sleep Cycle Premium for the integrations with Philips Hue, Apple Watch heart rates, and more alarm sounds (the different alarm sounds help with how annoyed you feel in the mornings). The additional statistics and features are great but aren’t necessarily the biggest selling points for me personally.

How Much is Sleep Cycle Premium?

Sleep Cycle Premium is available for $7.99 monthly, $17.99 for 3 months, and $29.99 yearly. After trying it out for a few months, I decided it was a great investment and subscribed to the annual plan to save money. I recommend doing the same!

Conclusion

Tracking your sleep, with or without the Sleep Cycle app, has been a great tool in my productivity arsenal. It holds me accountable for my sleep habits and trickles down with effects on my overall health and mentality. I encourage you to do the same and try out the freemium app!

If you haven’t started sleep tracking yet, what are your expectations? Do you think you have a high or low regularity?

If you already started and have a good chunk of data, have you noticed any growth or changes?

If you found this article helpful, please consider buying me a coffee as a token of your appreciation. It helps keep me fueled and inspired to continue creating content for you!

This post is NOT sponsored by anyone, but I did include affiliate links to the products I use. If you end up buying one of the products I suggested, doing so via the links in this article will help me out a bunch!