Help Me Fix My Insomnia with My New Toy

[JumpyTheFrog]

Summary: I have a new device that measures my brainwaves while I sleep. I am trying to experiment and use statistics to figure out which treatments help and which are a waste of money.

 

 

 

I have been fighting insomnia for the last nine years. Last month I got a Zeo, a device I wear on my forehead at night to measure my brainwaves. It tells me how much light/deep/REM sleep I get each night. I have used it since February 11 and the nightly sleep scores correlates very well with how I feel the next day, along with my memory of my sleep pattern from the night before.

 

Since I also wear a Fitbit and use a heart rate monitor while exercising, I entered all the data into a spreadsheet and had it calculate various correlations. Here is what I have data on:

• Zeo score
• Total sleep
• Light sleep
• REM sleep
• Deep sleep
• Times woken
• Time awake at night
• Time to fall asleep
• Total steps for the day
• Calories burned exercising
• Average heart rate while exercising
• Max heart rate while exercising
• Minutes of strength training
• Dose of progesterone cream that evening

My diet, sleep supplements, bedtime, and bedtime routine have been as consistent as possible with two little kids around. I wish there were fewer variables or that they were easier to control.

 

I ran all sorts of correlations and here are the r-squared values that showed any actual relationship. (r-squared values explain what % of the data is explained by the relationships between variables)

• max heart rate during exercise vs zeo score for the night (24%)
• average heart rate during exercise vs zeo score for the night (23%)
• max heart rate vs total sleep (23%)

None of the following show any relationship so far:

• calories burned vs anything
• deep sleep vs anything
• rem sleep vs anything
• time to fall asleep vs anything
• steps walked vs anything
• minutes of strength training vs anything

• any parameter of sleep vs max heart rate, avg heart rate, or calories burned the next day ---- This one surprised me. I thought a higher sleep score from the night before would lead to a harder workout, but it doesn’t seem to matter. A higher zeo score does lead to me feeling better during the day, especially the first two hours of the day.

Now I need to figure out what (easily measurable) variables to test. Ideas I have so far:

• calcium
• tryptophan
• 5-HTP
• GABA
• grams of starchy carbs
• changing dosage of melatonin

I don’t know what to start with or how many nights I need to try each for. Also, does anyone with more statistics knowledge know how many nights I should try a new treatment for before a washout period (time between experimental treatments) and another new treatment? Things are further complicated by the fact that my sleep gets worse the week before my period.

 

I wish I remembered more statistics from high school and college. (Although most of the courses were about calculating things, not actually interpreting data.)

Edited March 2, 2016 by HoppyTheToad

[JumpyTheFrog]

And yes, my DH sometimes jokes about me being like a cyborg with all my various devices. 

[Sandragood1]

Our experience with melatonin was that after three or four weeks the body became used to it and required either a multi week break or a higher dosage.

 

I'd suggest a full week on this one at minimum to look for effects. A longer time will yield more certainty but you will run into the decreasing effectiveness issue if you go too long.

[JumpyTheFrog]

I've been using melatonin for five years now, but at a much lower dose than most people take. I take 0.25 mg twice in the evening. Most tablets sold are 1-5 mg. Personally I'm not inclined to change the dose. I'd rather experiment with other variables first.