I’m going to prove this 1 bad habit is destroying my sleep (yours too)

I’m about to perform an epic health diagnostic on myself.

I’ll be the guinea pig in my own lab.

I’ll put myself to the test in an effort to determine, once and for all, just how much my worst habit is damaging my sleep.

I’ve always suspected this behavior destroys the quality of my shuteye, and I feel in my bones that it is, but I’d like to go beyond “eye tests” and see if I can prove it.

Everything must be measured

So I finally made the leap and bought a fitness watch.

I’ve always been a very numbers-focused person. If something can be measured and ranked, I want to measure and rank it.

Plus, the more I write about health and fitness topics here, the more I feel the urge to do an even deeper dive into my own behaviors and results.

It’s not that I’m unhealthy.

I’ve made a lot of huge gains on the health front over the past nine months or so.

If you’ve followed my writing for any amount of time, you know that I quit alcohol last summer and completely turned my life around as a result.

I’m happier, healthier, and wealthier.

I also recovered from a previous MS scare, two slipped discs, and COVID (twice in eight months), and rejigged my fitness to avoid injury and stay in the gym at 42.

But now I want to supercharge those gains and take my quality of life to the next level.

To do that, I need to get my last, persistent addiction out of my life and start getting the rest and recovery I need to operate at peak efficiency.

We could all do with more quality sleep (Digital illustration credit: James Julian/DallE2)

Slow deterioration of sleep

Right now, I’m not operating at peak efficiency. Far from it.

With my new fitness watch, I’ve been keeping tabs on my sleep for about two weeks or so.

See if you can spot a trend below in my sleep over the past few days.

Dark blue is deep sleep, light blue is REM sleep, medium blue is light sleep, and red is awake: