The Truth About Tracking: Expectations vs. Reality
I’m not a data freak, but I love the idea of tracking and the devices and apps that go with it. And as a biohacker, I’ve played with my fair share of them. Here are some things I track, my expectations, and the reality of the experience.
Lessons from Tracking My Sleep
For Christmas 2018, I got an Oura ring—a smart ring with tiny sensors to track all kinds of data from my sleep and then pronounce my readiness in the morning. An Ouracle (sorry).
It’s sharp. I longed for it. I had to wait until February for it to arrive. And I dreamed of it improving my sleep immeasurably (sorry again).
It certainly makes tracking easy and fun. It also makes me rather obsessed about my deep sleep levels, which are well below what I want them to be. That said, I remember that I used to be a full-fledged insomniac, so getting an average of just under 7 hours of shuteye a night is an exploit for me, and perfect for someone with the short sleeper gene like me—yes, I got my genome sequenced (the Christmas before).
Mostly, however, it’s fun to wake up to a comment about my readiness to face the day. I have been known to change my schedule depending on whether I get, “Go slow” or “Ready for more?”
You can also track your ZZZ’s with pen and paper, or using an app such as Sleep Cycle, or an app on your Apple Watch. I like to make sure all Bluetooth and wifi are off on the device I use when I snooze.
Honestly, in eight months of spying on my slumber, I’ve noticed a slight decrease in the total number of hours in the past few months (and have a hypothesis I’m testing). However, there have been no significant changes in the length of deep sleep on average. What do I conclude?
Prior to getting the ring, I had already implemented a number of successful sleep hacks.
My body has found a sleep homeostasis.
I haven’t uncovered any new wildly effective hacks that shake up the status quo.
The reality is that, due to tracking, I pay a lot of attention to my sleep, which is never a bad thing.
Eye-openers from Tracking
I keep an eye on this with my Oura ring. Although I have consistently high (even very high) activity scores, averaging just under 160% of set goals, it’s still shocking to see how much time I spend sitting down, and I’m notoriously fidgety, always standing and moving. That said, I don’t follow this indicator at all. In fact, my real exercise tracker is in my own body. My legs tingle and I have to get up and move. That’s it. I know that the more you move, the more your body wants to move. I move a lot.
For a while, I did have an Apple Watch and shared my activity with some friends, but I got bored with the whole thing quickly. I warned you, I’m no data junkie. However, studies do show that tracking your activity will increase likelihood of staying in shape.
Every once in awhile I connect to Cronometer and attempt to record what I eat for three days running. I usually manage to diligently track the details for about 2 days before the tedium of it all overcomes me. That’s enough, however, to always get some insight into my current nutritional intake and possible supplementation, my omega 3/6 ratio, and my overall macros. Tracking diet can double success in weight loss effort, if that is your goal.
Awareness is the big takeaway from all my monitoring. By just paying more attention, I occasionally notice patterns and even identify areas for improvement or problems. I have to filter the information for relevance, but it does lead to taking action. I would say that it gives me more confidence in how I feel in my body, which is perfectly able to tell me where I am, if I listen.
What to Track
Beyond sleep, diet, exercise, and health indicators, here are two other things you could track that could reveal some surprises
Time. Track exactly how you spend your time over a single day. Where is it really going? What you find could help you optimize the day.
Habits. It is particularly helpful to track your habits when introducing a new one or changing an old one. Celebrating the successes will keep you motivated and seeing when you’re off track will help set things right.