The Scientific Way To Calculate Effective Hours Of Sleep

Sleep is one of the crucial activities of the daily routine yet underrated by many people. We have seen people saying that I can stay awake for 24 hours or 32 hours, etc. Well, do you really think it is a good practice? If there is a misfortune and you need to stay awake, that is another thing. However, if you are willingly not taking a proper sleep due to many modern lifestyle reasons such as binge-watch or gaming. Sometimes it can also happen due to the bad sleeping positions or the food we take before sleeping.  Then, you are harming your body. You should know and follow your sleep cycle. On the same line, you must learn how to calculate your bedtime and how a sleep cycle calculator can be of use in the same.

Have you ever heard of the term ‘sleep cycle calculator’? if this is something new to you, let us explain what is it and how does it helps to take sufficient sleep.

Introduction To Sleep Cycle Calculator

A sleep cycle calculator helps track your sleep at different stages (Stage 1,2,3, and REM). Well, some new terms again? :p

Stage 1: Where you just slept (less than 10 minutes from the moment you fall asleep). 

Stage 2: When it is about 30 to 60 minutes after you fall asleep

Stage 3: It is the stage where your deepest sleep occurs.

REM Stage: At this stage, you start dreaming. 

However, people get disrupted maximum at stage 3 which is why it becomes difficult to fall asleep again. To avoid such scenarios, sleep cycle calculators are used. These are not the physical calculators which you may need to buy. It is a simple calculation method that you can do for yourself so that you do not awake at your stage 3 sleep cycle. 

How To Calculate Effective Hours Of Sleep?

No matter how old you are, you must have some obligations that define your wake-up time. However, your sleeping time is not defined. With a sleep cycle calculator, you can define your sleeping time.

According to the sleep cycle calculator, a person must take either 5-cycle sleep (7.5 hours) or 6-cycle sleep (9 hours) plus 15 minutes that you may require to fall asleep.

To illustrate, let’s suppose you feel refreshed after 7.5hours of sleep. if you have to wake up at 9 AM, you should go to bed maximum by 1.15 (considering 15 mins buffer time). 

Please note, that we do not encourage late-night sleep. This sleep cycle calculator helps you balance your lifestyle needs and healthy body. If you have prior commitments, you must fulfill them.

1. Sleep Quantity

Any day you feel you will have to work till late, you can use this calculator to check the maximum time you are allowed to work which will not hamper your sleep and physical health. 

Remember, if you are taking enough sleep, you will feel refreshed the other day. No matter at what time you slept. It’s just that it should be 7.5 hours at least or a maximum of 9 hours. 

2. Quality Of Sleep

You can plan the quantity of sleep but sleep quality can not be planned. But it is also an important matter of concern. You may take 7-9 hours of sleep and still feel tired due to the inefficient sleep. This is a serious concern you should pay attention to.

Now, how sleep cycle calculator can help you get an effective quality of sleep? 

To illustrate, suppose you slept for 7.5 hours (450 minutes) and it took 30 minutes for you to fall asleep. Moreover, your sleep got disturbed for another 40 minutes due to restlessness and discomfort. 

Let’s calculate the sleep quality or efficiency for this night

Total sleep time: 450 minutes

Subtract time to fall asleep: 30 minutes

Subtract total time spent awake: 40minutes

Sleep efficiency for the night: 380 minutes (6 hours 20 minutes) or 84% (370/450)

In sleep science, if you sleep 85% or higher. Sleep is called efficient sleep to give you a healthy body. Now you can calculate your sleep efficiency and get an idea of how efficient is your sleep cycle.

If your sleep efficiency is higher than 85% that means, you are having qualitative and quantitative sleep. If not, that means you have to work on your sleep cycle and avoid things that affect your bedtime such as stop playing video games, late night work, taking certain food harming your sleep etc.

3. Improve Your Sleep Cycle

It is our duty to give you a complete guide to help you get better sleep. First of all, if you are reading this late in the night when you must have slept, then it is one of the habits you should avoid.

Decrease your light exposure. You may not know; your brain gets the signal to sleep from the dim light. Also, do not consume caffeine near to your bedtime, as it activates brain cells which will hamper your sleep time. Most importantly, avoid taking daytime naps, it will prolong your ‘trying to get asleep’ time.

Conclusion

A sleep cycle calculator is one of the easiest ways to calculate the quality and quantity of sleep that is required to keep your mind and body healthy. Moreover, it aids in balancing your modern and healthy lifestyle. If you are stuck also stuck to getting good sleep, try sleeping according to the sleep cycle calculate for a month, you will see the changes in your sleep cycle. Keep following our lifestyle blog,  for more informative health-related articles.