Is 8 Hours of Sleep the Answer to Better Health?

Sleep trackers are everywhere. You see them on wrists and fingers, in phones, beside beds, all preaching 7-9 hours as the golden rule. I lived that obsession. I tracked my days and my nights, puzzled as to why 5-6 hours could leave me clear-headed some days, while on other days after a full 8 hours, I was running on empty. You’ve probably felt it too. You wake up worn out when the tracker says you slept well, or sharp when it claims you didn’t sleep enough.  How do you account for this inconsistency? When my tracker showed a strong night but I didn’t feel it, I assumed the tech made a mistake. When I woke fresh but it scored me low, I thought I must have it wrong! We’ve all been there. We doubt the tech when it doesn’t fit, or let it tell us how we should feel. Everyone counts minutes, apps enforce it, and we follow along. I kept asking  why does the data feel so disconnected from my actual experience?” The hours and minutes seem haphazard when we relate it to how we feel, and the sleep scores can feel like a random throw of the dart board.

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I think we all inherently know that time isn’t the full story of sleep.
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The 8 hour guideline came from morbidity studies which showed that those who slept less than 7 or more than 9 hours had increased mortality rates. The data shows a clear pattern, but correlation isn’t causation. It takes time for your brain to do the work of recovery during sleep, but does that mean time is the metric we should be measuring? Does an extra few minutes here or there really make the difference?

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What if we took the same approach to dietary health? If we timed how long people spend eating each day, we’d likely find a sweet spot around 2-3 hours. Too little, and you’re undernourished, too much, and obesity or metabolic issues build up. Imagine the headlines: Eat for 2.5 hours a day for optimal health!” We’d laugh at that. It’s ridiculous on its face. Nobody is clocking their fork for optimal health. It’s the nutrients your body takes in during that time that is important. Isn’t it just as ridiculous to judge sleep by the clock?

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I can hear some people saying, But my tracker tells me how much time I spent in deep sleep.” That’s still just time. It says nothing about the restorative function of the brain. The synchronous firing of neurons in deep sleep clears metabolic waste, bolsters your immune system, solidifies memories, and more. That stretch of deep sleep could be weak or potent, but trackers can’t tell. They estimate how much time your body had to recover, not the amount of repair achieved. It’s like measuring your time at the gym without any consideration of the amount of weight or reps which are what the workout is all about.

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A consistent sleep routine with good sleep hygiene, a balanced diet, and exercise are the basics of good health.  In sleep, we see supplements, teas, lighting, and many more things which might nudge one person into a small improvement, while doing nothing for the next person. These things are not transformative, and do little to raise the bar for the more than 70% of people still lack the high level of restorative function needed for optimal health.  The sleep industry clings to this idea of counting minutes..  At Affectable Sleep, we’re here to optimize the physical, mental, and emotional benefits that high quality sleep delivers. Our technology actively enhances your brain’s most vital restorative function, not measured in minutes, but with the biomarkers of health like increased HRV by as much as 14%, up to 30% increase in the restorative electrical activity of the brain, a 15% decrease in night time cortisol levels, improved immune function, and much much more.

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The industry’s obsessed with adding minutes to sleep. We’re adding more sleep to each minute.

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We don’t track your sleep time or nudge you into sleep, we measure and boost the restorative function that make sleep valuable. Our mission is to enhance your brain’s restorative function and optimize your physical, mental, and emotional health. No more chasing minutes, no more settling for marginal gains. If you’re tired of the same tired advice, if you’re ready to make your sleep count in the time you have, join our waitlist.

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