The latest Apple IOS update included an addition to the Health app. A sleep score. At first, when it popped up on my phone in the morning I was thinking, “OK, this is kind of cool. I get a grade on my sleep.”
But then, when I received scores in the 60s for three consecutive days, I wasn’t as pleased. Did I really want to wake up in the morning to already be nearly failing? The app decides how well you slept, how close you were to your prescribed bedtime and whether the time you slept was sufficient.
The big question in my mind as the weeks progressed was, “Do I want an app pressuring me to make my bedtime when I had two chapters left in a book I couldn’t put down? Or, who decides if my chronic wakefulness in the middle of the night when Poppy has to go out at 3:13 am is bad?” Shouldn’t I take care of my pup’s needs before my own?
In any case, I’ve kept the app on my phone, and I do look forward to it in the mornings I’ve had a good night’s sleep. On those other mornings, I just pretend it’s not there.
So, it was especially gratifying to finally crack into the 90s this week. And, in truth, I did sleep great and wake up before my alarm. The score of 96 was a surprise, though, since I’d struggled with more 60s earlier in the week and didn’t expect to leapfrog up the scale that much.
I’m still on the fence about keeping sleep score going. I do think about it when I prepare for bed now, which isn’t a bad thing necessarily. So, I suppose anything that encourages better sleep is positive for your health, but at the end of this first quarter if I can’t at least score a B, I’m going to drop this class.