I've been wearing a Samsung Active 2 Watch to track sleep for several years and inadvertently, combined with lifestyle changes, it became a sleep behaviour experiment. The Samsung Health app popped up a summary, 12 months of records from my year of mostly cycle touring, and I realised it could answer a question I had long wondered about.
While the sleep records of a consumer device are probably not that accurate, given it has all been with the same device, they are likely consistently inaccurate so can still be used for comparison.
My 'normal' sleep, or not...
I've always been a night owl, happily staying up until after midnight, sleeping in the morning. I've never understood why getting up early is seen as better than staying up late. Those early risers who say 'you miss the best part of the day' don't experience the calm and peace of the truly early morning, the hours after midnight.
My 'natural hours', those I choose to live when on holiday, typically mean staying up until 1-2am and sleeping until 7-8am. I long suspected fitting into the working day, getting up for the morning commute, led to me sleeping less, much less than the 'recommended' 7-8 hours but now had some long-term data to support it, or not.
Working week sleep routines
Having to get up for work pushed my 'average' bedtime nearer Midnight. I slept around six hours on average and woke up about 6:15. That gave time to walk a dog (short lap around the block), breakfast and bike or drive to work.
A chunk of the 2020-21 year was during lockdown, but I worked all the way through, and the routine didn't really change much.
Time Out 2021-22 sleep
For the past year (October 2021 to early August 2022) I've had no work routine to determine when I slept. I finished work late September 2021 and took 'Time Out 2021-2022'. I was lockdown cycling locally (October 2021 to January 2022), cycle/drive travelling NZ full-time (January to June 2022), and riding locally, doing domestic stuff, or finding work (June to August 2022).
Although I was active apart from a few days (flights, ferries, or checkout times) could do what I liked, when I liked.
What I find interesting is although 'bedtime' shifted later my sleep duration only increased to 6.5 hours. It seems conventional work hours influence the wake-up time but they don't greatly impact my sleep duration. I do wonder about all the science that says you need 7-8 hours sleep, what impacts ~6 long term might have...
