In my last article, I was talking about how metrics can lead us away from our values and change our behaviours. There are times that numbers do have value though, because they can help us change the behaviours we want to change, or perhaps give us insight into what might not be that obvious to us, or not that easy to express. It is because of these reasons that I purchased an Oura Ring a few weeks ago, and the data is slowly starting to trickle in.
It takes some times to learn patterns and will keep adjusting over time, but tonight I got the first bit of bedtime's approaching data, where it actually gave me an optimal window based on its observations of my habits and results from the last few weeks. Prior to this, it just said at around 8PM that bedtime was approaching, and I should wind down.
I haven't been in bed by eight since I was about six years old.
Unless sex was involved.
It has obviously clocked me as a "Wolf"
The Wolf Chronotype
Wolves typically go to sleep late, and, as a result, they wake later in the morning. Wolf chronotypes usually take a while to get into the swing of things after waking, and the two most productive times for them are somewhere around noon and in the late evening.
That is a fair assessment.
However, I am not paying too much attention to my sleep tonight, because I wanted to write a bit before bed, and I had other things going on earlier (which unfortunately wasn't sex related). But, what I wanted to write about in terms of the tracking, is how it is checking my stress.
Now, this is physiological stress, which means it doesn't know if I am mentally stressed or not, but is just looking at the physical indicators that point to it. There are numerous reasons for physiological stress response of course, with exercise being a clear one. After the gym, I have a stress response for a few hours, which is a good thing in my opinion, as the body is still working, even though I have stopped exercising.
But, I have been watching it over the last week (as it took time to start showing feedback) and most of the time I am in the "stressed" or "engaged" state (according to the ring) with almost zero waking time in the relaxed or restored areas.
Those green dots were me falling asleep for a couple minutes laying on an acupressure mat.
As you can see, the stress areas are marked in red, and there is a clear patch before midday, a long red patch between about 2 and 7 PM, and then a patch to close out into the night. And I think that this is where it gets a little interesting, because while the back half of the middle section is me at the gym and then afterward, the first section was when I was doing some writing, and the last patch was watching Severance with my wife. Even when I don't go to the gym, whenever I have to do any kind of slightly heavier thinking work, my body gets physiologically stressed.
I have been watching this over the last days with interest, because it is a pretty clear indication of just how much effort it takes me to think these days. Although I don't have any pre-stroke data, I think that there would barely be a blip difference earlier.
A couple days ago I mentioned this to the psychotherapist I am seeing and she wrote it down as an indication of the challenge I face in thinking. This doesn't mean I can't think well necessarily, but it can mean that there is obvious additional energy used in doing so - which isn't news to me. It is because of this that long work meetings were a struggle, learning is very intensive, and at the end of what should have been an ordinary day, I had very little energy, patience, or willpower left.
Seeing these numbers don't help me think better, but in some way it has helped validate my feelings, showing that I am not just a crazy person who is making it all up. Now, I know I am not, but the trouble with a brain injury like mine is, people don't see the difference, unless they know me well. And even then, they can never fully understand how impactful it is.
I don't have numbers on how much extra energy it takes me to do some things, but I assume that it is significantly more than the average baseline for "my type" of person. It is a bit like earning the same amount as someone, but having to pay 30% more for every purchase and living expense. While one might be living comfortably, the other has to make concessions and sacrifices to make ends meet. And then when one is struggling, the other says, "but we earn the same amount - you must waste your money" - when the opposite is true.
I can't afford to waste my brain power.
This is early days with the data set, and I am looking forward to the other areas that I will start getting info on soon, like heart health and the like. However, I will be following these over time and seeing if the trends change, and if I am able to find more effective ways to lower the physiological response, or increase the amount of restorative time. It seems that whatever I am doing to relax now, isn't working. There are days where I felt I rested, but didn't fall into restore time at all.
Well, I have well and truly missed my ideal sleep window now.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
