How important is sleep to your health?

An average person sleeps about one third of their lives, and good night's sleep makes a big impact on their productivity (Armand et al., 2021). We all know that psychological well-being starts with healthy sleep. Poor sleep quality is associated with low levels of mental state. There is a strong correlation between better sleep and better physical, cognitive, and psychological well being (Barros et al., 2019). Amount of sleep is an important part of sleep quality. Enough sleep helps you maintain a satisfactory level of productivity and psychological comfort.(Chaput et al., 2018). Sleep deprivation leads to bad consequences like: fatigue, heart disease, obesity, depression, diabetes. Also, too much sleep can lead to depression, irritability, and cardiovascular problems. Moreover, too little or too much sleep may indicate various physical and mental health issues. 

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How long should you sleep?

Are there specific criteria for determining how much sleep you need? Does everyone need the same amount of sleep? Today, it has been established that adequate sleep duration depends on the individual and the stage of life they are in. Based on the National Sleep Foundation's recommendations, newborns should sleep 14 to 17 hours, infants between 12 and 15 hours, toddlers between 11 and 14 hours, preschoolers between 10 and 13 hours, and school-aged children between 9 and 11 hours. In teens, 8 to 10 hours of sleep is recommended, 7 to 9 hours for young adults and adults, and 7 to 8 hours for older adults(Hirshkowitz et al., 2015).  The data suggests there is no "magic number" for sleep duration.  In addition to sleep duration, bedtime and wake-up time play a role in quality sleep (Chaput et al., 2018). 

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Is Goodville able to evaluate sleep?

Following from what has been said above, keeping track of your sleep quality is important for preserving and maintaining emotional well-being. Using the Goodville app, users can monitor the quality and duration of their sleep to maintain emotional well-being. The player can mark the time of falling asleep and waking up in a special sleep quality section. Thus, Goodville lets users maintain a sleep diary by recording their bedtime, wake-up time, and sleep duration.

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What have we researched?

The purpose of this study was to assess the time sleep characteristics of Goodville users from the US population. The time sleep characteristics of sleep included answers to the following questions: how long do Goodville players sleep for, when do they go to bed, and how early do they get up in the morning.

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What was the methodology?

Through the Goodville sleep module, sleep data was collected from 8000 US users between December 2020 and October 2022. Participants tracked the time they fell asleep and woke up. There was a wide range of checks per respondent, ranging from 1 to 661. A total of 1861801 observations were recorded. Sleep was rated about 10 times by the majority of players, with a median number of trackings being 3. For repeated trackings, median time sleep characteristics were calculated. Respondents were between the ages of 12-67, taking into consideration the outliers. The average age of the players was 38 years with sd=12.71. There were 86% females, 12% males, and 2% other. Using the Grubb test, sleep duration indicators were analyzed for outliers. This led to the exclusion of data from 493 players from further analysis as outliers. 

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What about sleep duration?

So, how long did the Goodwill players sleep? In general, Goodwill players get a good night's sleep. Average duration was 8 and a half hours (SD=1.5). The figure 1 shows how players were distributed according to their sleep duration.

The diagram shows that most players (76%) got enough sleep (7 -9 hours) at night. There were 12% of respondents who reported sleeping less than seven hours a night. At the same time, 10% of them slept for 5 to 7 hours at night. Less than 4.5 hours of sleep was recorded only by 2% of US players. Sleeping more than 7 hours was noted by the same proportion of players as sleeping less than 7 hours. Meanwhile, most (9%) had less than 11 hours of sleep per night. Based on the data obtained, we can conclude that most US Goodwill players get sufficient sleep. 

What time do the players go to bed?

Next, we aimed to estimate the players' bedtimes. Figure 2 shows results of players’ bedtime assessment. 

It can be seen from the histogram on Figure 2 that more than half of players fall asleep between 23:00 and 24:00. In our opinion it is a bit late, because the best time to fall asleep for adults is between 22:00 and 23:00 according to some research data (Nikbakhtian et al., 2021). This range of bedtimes was only available to 9% of US Goodville players. Sleep started later than 23:00 for 23% of players. There are 12% of players who fall asleep after 3:00, which we believe is detrimental to their physical health and emotional wellbeing. 9% of participants reported early bedtimes (before 20:00).   

We found a moderately positive correlation between bedtime and sleep duration (r=0,36; p<0,05). Consequently, late bedtime may result in longer sleep. 

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How early do they get up?

In the next research question, the wake-up time of US Goodville players was examined. The distribution of players by wake-up time ranges is shown in figure 3.

In evaluating the data on the histogram, we assume that late awakening (later than 8:00 a.m.) is not good because it leads to decreased productivity, weight gain (Olds et al., 2011) and heart disease  (Yan et al., 2021). Additionally, it is important to observe sufficient sleep duration on the other hand. According to the histogram, more than half of the players (57%) woke up between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. It is not an early wake-up time, but also it is not too late to wake up. Nevertheless, waking up later than 9:00 a.m. is not advised with a sleep duration of 7 hours or more. 21% of respondents reported waking up between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m., which probably allows them to maintain productivity throughout the day. Small proportions of respondents had too late wake-up time (13%) and too early wake-up time (9%). It is logical to assume that players whose wake-up times were after 10:00 have a long-standing sleep habit of waking up late. A habit of waking up later than 10:00 or 11:00 is not good for health because it predisposes to the diseases listed above. 

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So what is the conclusion?

Thus, the study found that US Goodville players generally sleep a sufficient amount. About half of the players go to sleep between 23:00 and 24:00. Similar proportions of players go to bed earlier at 23:00 and later at 24:00. Most respondents wake up between 6:00 and 9:00 a.m., with 57% waking up between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. Sleep duration tends to be longer the later the bedtime.

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Finally, some sleep quality recommendations

Finally, we want to stress that a regular sleep schedule with adequate duration of sleep and appropriate wake up and bedtimes helps to maintain productivity, good health, and emotional well-being. Here are some tips to help you maintain a healthy sleep routine.  

• Be consistent with your wake-up and bedtime every day, even on weekends
• Daytime naps are okay, but not more than 30 minutes
• Start your day with bright sunlight
• Stay away from late-night TV and electronics
• Make sure you get enough fresh air
• Make exercise a part of your schedule
• Keep caffeine and nicotine to a minimum
• Avoid snacks before bedtime or limit them to something small and easily digestible (apple, banana, oatmeal).  
• A good rule of thumb is to have dinner at least three hours before bed.

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References

Armand, M. A., Biassoni, F., & Corrias, A. (2021). Sleep, Well-Being and Academic Performance: A Study in a Singapore Residential College. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/FPSYG.2021.672238

Barros, M. B. de A., Lima, M. G., Ceolim, M. F., Zancanella, E., & Cardoso, T. A. M. de O. (2019). Quality of sleep, health and well-being in a population-based study. Revista de Saude Publica, 53, 82. https://doi.org/10.11606/S1518-8787.2019053001067/1518_8787_RSP_53_82_PDF.PDF

Chaput, J. P., Dutil, C., & Sampasa-Kanyinga, H. (2018). Sleeping hours: what is the ideal number and how does age impact this? Nature and Science of Sleep, 10, 421–430. https://doi.org/10.2147/NSS.S163071

Hirshkowitz, M., Whiton, K., Albert, S. M., Alessi, C., Bruni, O., DonCarlos, L., Hazen, N., Herman, J., Katz, E. S., Kheirandish-Gozal, L., Neubauer, D. N., O’Donnell, A. E., Ohayon, M., Peever, J., Rawding, R., Sachdeva, R. C., Setters, B., Vitiello, M. v., Ware, J. C., & Adams Hillard, P. J. (2015). National Sleep Foundation’s sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary. Sleep Health, 1(1), 40–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SLEH.2014.12.010

Nikbakhtian, S., Reed, A. B., Obika, B. D., Morelli, D., Cunningham, A. C., Aral, M., & Plans, D. (2021). Accelerometer-derived sleep onset timing and cardiovascular disease incidence: a UK Biobank cohort study. European Heart Journal - Digital Health, 2(4), 658–666. https://doi.org/10.1093/EHJDH/ZTAB088

Olds, T. S., Maher, C. A., & Matricciani, L. (2011). Sleep duration or bedtime? Exploring the relationship between sleep habits and weight status and activity patterns. Sleep, 34(10), 1299–1307. https://doi.org/10.5665/SLEEP.1266

Yan, B., Li, R., Li, J., Jin, X., Gao, F., Gao, Y., Ren, J., Zhang, J., Wang, X., & Wang, G. (2021). Sleep timing may predict congestive heart failure: A community-based cohort study. Journal of the American Heart Association, 10(6). https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.120.018385

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