Sleep Smart
"With Age Comes Wisdom"....Oscar Wilde
I don't know about you, but years ago I used to think that it was a sign of strength to power through post call or after a three city, four day consulting engagement with only 2 - 3 hours of sleep. As I type this I know it sounds as goofy as it was. Now I will confess, I learned little to nothing about the importance of sleep during my many years of training. Over the past decade, as my interests have evolved from "sick care" to "health care" I have expanded my reading to include nutrition, sleep, stress and physical activity. The main purpose of this blog has been to share what little I glean from life and literature with those who have common interests.
Sleep. I am fascinated by sleep. After listening to a recent three part series with Dr. Matthew Walker on the Peter Attia Drive I have started my own self-experiments. I had been tracking my sleep using my Fitbit and/or Apple Watch. Neither were great tools and were not very accurate. My technology habit got the best of me and I purchased an Oura ring and I have been wearing the ring now for several weeks. I have included some screenshots from the Oura app below. I am a geek at heart and I LOVE data. The insights I have gleaned about my sleep (or lack of sleep in some cases) has been enlightening. If you are interested in learning more I would also recommend a podcast where Dr. Rangan Chatterjee spoke with Dr. Alessandro Ferretti and they discussed some of the nuances of heart rate variability. I have made several lifestyle changes over the past six months related to nutrition, sleep and stress I hope to share more in upcoming posts. In the meantime, I will keep measuring, monitoring and managing my health. I look forward to sharing more about my journey in upcoming blog posts. Oh! And I am revamping old recipes so stay tuned for some yummy plant-based posts too.
Be well,
Wingman
