A board-certified sleep doctor gave me a 1-week schedule to go from 6 to 7 hours sleep a night — here’s what happened to my Oura ring ‘sleep debt’
My Oura Ring said I got 6 hours of sleep a night and owed 8 hours and 50 minutes in 'sleep debt', so Dr Shelby Harris created a sleep schedule to help me pay it back in a week. Here's what happened...
Wearing an Oura Ring for six weeks has revealed that I consistently sleep only six hours each night, resulting in a significant sleep debt of 8 hours and 50 minutes. Board-certified sleep doctor Dr. Shelby Harris provided me with a one-week schedule to gradually increase my nightly sleep from six to seven hours. The key aspects of her plan involve maintaining a consistent wake-up time and progressively going to bed earlier by 15-30 minutes every two nights while accounting for individual sleep latency.
For my specific case, taking about 9-10 minutes to fall asleep, I aimed to adjust my bedtime by 15 minutes earlier than my usual bedtime. The process involved adhering to Dr. Harris's schedule meticulously, even on weekends, to avoid "social jet lag" and further exacerbating sleep debt. By the end of the week, my sleep debt had decreased significantly, demonstrating the effectiveness of Dr. Harris's gradual sleep schedule in addressing sleep debt.
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