Dr. Michael Grandner

If you see your sleep,

your sleep stages, irrespective of what it gives you, if it shows that they're highly variable across the night, something's up.

If it's putting deep sleep in the second half of your night, something's up.

If it's putting a big bout of REM sleep in your first three or four hours of the night, something's up.

It doesn't belong there.

Could be, but it's unlikely.

And if anything, that tells me that I don't know what's going on under the hood, but something is aberrant there.

Not that your sleep stages are in the wrong place, but that the algorithm is finding them where they don't belong.

And so why?

Well, what's the algorithm using?

If it's using movement and heart rate, it means there's something unusual going on with your movement and your heart rate.

in that time where it doesn't belong.

And then you can start thinking about what that is.

Could that be sleep apnea and you're jerking around or something, or you have limb movements, or maybe it's a bed partner who keeps rolling over or making noise.

So it might give you a window into, I was unconscious during this time, but something was going on during that time.

And then you can start looking into what that could be.

Yeah.

So first I would look to see, is there anything chemically in the way?

Is there alcohol?

Is there medication that you're taking at night that you should be moving earlier in the day, for example?