[Steve]

This question may seem a little silly but how am I supposed to assess how long it takes me to fall asleep and how much sleep I get when I am not supposed to look at the clock at night? It’s hard to assess how long it takes me to fall asleep as I usually do my breathing meditation exercises right after I get into bed. Sometimes I fall asleep while doing them and other times it takes me a lot longer. But I never know for sure because obviously I am not looking at a clock when I fall asleep. How do all of you make these assessments?

[Martin Reed]

Great question, Steve! The short answer is, you just use your best estimate.

When I have clients fill out sleep diaries, I stress the importance of not clock watching during the night. When filling out a sleep diary, you only need to check the clock twice. Once at night, to record when you went to bed — and once, in the morning, to record when you got out of bed to start the day.

Everything in between is just an estimate.

So, for example, if you know you went to bed at 10 PM, it took two hours to fall asleep, you woke a few times and spent roughly an hour awake during the night, then got out of bed at 6 AM, we can estimate that you got roughly five-and-a-half hours of sleep.

Although this may not seem all that accurate, research suggests that our recall when filling out sleep diaries is actually remarkably accurate — and, even if not, the way we estimate time tends not to change over time. So, sleep diaries are still a great way to measure and assess progress.

I hope this helps!

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[Steve]

Yes Martin, it does.  I do admit I have some idea as when I get up to go to the bathroom, I see the clock when I get out of and get back into bed. So I can estimate the rest. Thanks.

[Author]

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