Since December, I’ve had a new high level of insomnia. It normally takes me a few hours to fall asleep, but now it takes me twice as long.
I’m a massive believer in bedtime mode and usually set strict limits to prevent myself from scrolling on my phone, but even now, I have broken my own rules.
I started sleeping with another phone again, one that is a bit more devoid of apps, but has enough on it that I can still access some emergency meditation features.
I decided to try something more tactful to help me sleep better. I turned my Google Pixel into a sleep coach — it is surprisingly working.
I unlocked the full potential of bedtime mode
I calibrated my Clock app properly with bedtime mode
Putting bedtime mode on my Samsung Galaxy and OnePlus worked like a charm a year ago.
I couldn’t stand the grey-scale mode when bedtime mode was enabled for 10 pm. So I stopped taking my devices to bed less and less as time went on.
But I also found that not having my phone nearby made it more anxiety-inducing when I couldn’t sleep. Counting sheep just doesn’t work.
So instead, I brought my Google Pixel 8 to bed and changed how I interact with bedtime mode, rather than using it to completely cut out screen time.
I finally enabled the extra features, which did wonders for my sleep habits. While it wasn’t enough to restore my hours, it helped me address my sleep imbalance.
The first feature I enabled was a smart alarm. One habit that made my insomnia go out of control was how long I’d sleep in on the weekends. If I shut down my alarm because I finally fell asleep, I’d end up sleeping late in the day.
That affected how easily I’d fall asleep and my eating habits. I’d eat late, and I’d feel awake longer at night. So I needed to make myself wake up properly on time, even if it meant some days I was heavily sleep-deprived because of insomnia.
That’s when I started using the smart alarm feature (Sunrise Alarm) in the Clock app. It helped wake me up when I wasn’t too deep in my REM-NREM cycle, so I didn’t have to manually turn off my alarm on weekends. Doing so eased my wake-up times, even if it made me feel groggy.
When setting up the smart alarm, I chose Sunrise Alarm and added a new alarm sound from the Calm app to my settings.
Another option I enabled during setup was the Cough & snore detection feature. I’m not someone who snores, but I have a chronic cough in the winter because my vents are under my bed.
Coughing is a big reason why my quality of sleep is sometimes poor. I will go into a deep sleep and wake up with a cough.
So I wanted to see if this was true and not just my imagination. I allowed Google’s bedtime mode to use my microphone permissions to try to detect it.
Inside bedtime mode, you’ll see a chart of your screen time, along with your snoring and coughing statistics for the week.
Checking this showed that I was somehow coughing less, partly because I had turned down the heat before bed and was wearing cooler clothing.
While there are definitely some third-party apps that do the trick better, I didn’t want to enable my microphone permissions and give media access to ones I didn’t trust — or get suckered into freemium options.
I downloaded apps to educate and guide my sleep
Free resources do exist for insomniacs
My go-to app for guided meditations is Calm. But what I don’t like about it is the freemium model. The selection is extremely limiting, so I often just open YouTube to find channels that have sleep stories or meditations instead.
So I looked for a free sleep coaching app. The one I came across after doing research is CBT-i Coach. It’s an app endorsed by the National Center for PTSD.
The app uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), which is an evidence-based psychotherapy for treating insomnia. The main use is to help deal with serious chronic insomnia suffered by military members and veterans.
Though the National Center for PTSD page says the app should not be used for self-care and instead recommends another app, Insomnia Coach, for personal use, I still found that CBT-I worked well for what I used it for, and to me, the apps were similar.
The reason is that it is an app designed for therapy and should be used under professional guidance. But I didn’t let this deter me from trying it out.
What I liked about it was the sleep diary and sleep goals section, which helped me figure out other ways to fix it. It was a good way to be more aware of how bad my insomnia was and ways I can try fixing it.
My brain works more scientifically, so it makes me feel less anxious when I can understand why insomnia can happen.
But it is also a good way to prepare for therapy if the problems come back and become severe. So, if you want to, you could work with a professional using that app, since it is designed for that.
I noticed that the less I worried about my sleep, the easier it was to fall asleep and fall back asleep if I needed to.
Use your Fitbit subscription to level up your sleeping habits
If you want a true personalized sleep coach to improve your sleep health, pairing a Fitbit-supported smartwatch might be what you need.
Plus, the sensors on your smartwatch are just better than those on your phone for measuring your sleep.
With Fitbit Premium, you can learn about sleep restoration, which provides information on your sleep heart and the time you spent restless during the night.
You can also get similar sleep health metrics with other smartwatches, especially if you have a Samsung Galaxy paired with a Galaxy Watch.
Sleep health isn’t just about how much you sleep in a night. Getting good-quality sleep is equally important. That’s where a great sleep tracker can come in handy.
