Sleep. It’s a mom blogger’s nemesis.
There are a limited number of hours in the day when my children are sleeping, and when I can blog uninterrupted. So when I can’t finish everything I need to before it is time for me to go to bed I borrow time. Unfortunately, the only place I can borrow time is from my sleep.
Generally, however, I think I go to bed at a reasonable hour (around 11pm). I wake up at about 7:15am every morning. Not too bad. I get almost 8 hours of sleep each night. So then, why is it that on nights that I get enough sleep I still feel fatigued?
Getting the quantity of sleep you need is good, but if the quality of your sleep is poor you’re still going to wake up feeling unrested and grouchy. The LARK sleep system was designed by leading sleep experts and a pro-sports sleep coach. As your personal sleep coach, lark not only tracks your sleep but also provides you with sleep training based on your personal sleep style. Using a wrist band monitor and free app (available on iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch) LARK tracks falling asleep, sleep, and wake times. It is very helpful in letting you know how long it takes you to fall asleep, how many times you wake at night, and the total time you spent sleeping.
Here is a bit more about what LARK can do:
- Offers a baseline assessment designed by leading sleep experts that helps you uncover what type of sleeper you are
- Analyzes your sleep patterns
- Provides tailored sleep tips based on your sleep type and patterns
- Allows you to “tag” issues and track moods to show you how external factors (i.e. caffeine, stress, TV before bed) impact your sleep/mood
- Social sharing to share your success and improvement with friends and family via Twitter and Facebook
- Has a silent alarm that wakes you with gentle vibrations so as not to disturb your partner
Tracking is fairly easy, and, compared to the Zeo, the other sleep monitor I have which you wear on your forehead, is very unobtrusive. LARK tracks your sleep with an actigraphy microsensor (monitors circadian rhythms and sleep disturbances) worn on your wrist. The way in which LARK tracks your sleep, and the data it gives you, is much more general than the Zeo which measures amount time spent in each of the 4 sleep cycles. For instance LARK measures wake, falling asleep, and sleep. With Zeo you’ll see how much time you spend in deep (or restorative) sleep and how much time in REM, how much time you spent awake and how much time in light sleep. Because deep sleep is the most restorative stage it is important that we get enough of it. Not getting enough deep sleep is often the result of things we are doing, or not doing, during the day: computer or TV before bed, lack of exercise, too much caffeine, stress.
Here is a screen shot of the way LARK tracks your sleep…
This shows the latter part of my sleep. You can see that one or the other of my children woke up a little early, and then I, still feeling groggy, went back to sleep only to be wakened several more times before I actually got up.
Because LARK doesn’t measure the actual sleep cycles you’re not going to know if you are lacking in any one area of your sleep. LARK makes up for this with their personal sleep coaching (available with purchase of LARK PRO). LARK PRO includes a Personal Sleep Coach. The Sleep Coach develops a personalized training program, which includes simple and trackable sleep targets, tailored recommendations, daily phone reminders and improvement reports. You may not be able to see your specific sleep stage time, but you’ll sure feel the difference as you work with your sleep coach on your sleep training program.
Here are some screen shots of my LARK stats (I didn’t have a good sleep week the week that I wore LARK)
Here is the 7 night sleep summary that comes with the standard LARK purchase
Here you can see the Tags you can tag.
These will help you identify any consistent causes of poor sleep quality.
One thing that I really appreciate is that LARK gives a more accurate number of wake times. Zeo would typically say I woke about 4 times during the night. I wake up several times at night and adjust my pillows and blankets each time I turn over. During my 7 day sleep study LARK said I typically woke about 12 times each night (apparently that is fairly average).
In summary, if you are looking for a sleep coaching device that will give you an idea of your sleep quality, number of times you wake during the night, and great tips on how to improve your sleep, LARK will probably work for you. If you’re looking to pinpoint exactly what stage of sleep you’re missing out on you might want to go for the more in depth Zeo. I’m thinking that, except for those who have serious sleep problems, LARK will work perfectly. Following the personalized sleep coaching you’re sure to see a quick improvement in your sleep quantity and quality.
You can see more about how it works and purchase LARK at LARK.com. LARK retails for $99 with LARK PRO available for $159.
You can keep up with the latest from LARK on their facebook and twitter pages.
Now, who’s ready to win one of these babies?!!!
Thanks to LARK one lucky reader will win a LARK sleep coach (RV $99) of their own!
Disclosure: I received the above mentioned product, at no cost to myself, in order to facilitate a review. All opinions expressed are honest and are entirely my own.
About Amy @ Oh So Savvy Mom
Comments