Here’s an honest truth, I don’t get nearly as much quality bedtime as a healthy 26-year-old with every nutritional detail dialled in, should be banking on. The problem isn’t in sleep opportunity, I get 8 hours under the covers on most days. I should be sauntering into the day, but instead I’m getting dragged into it. So I’ve decided to get a tracker that can give me morning reports on just how much went wrong last night.

The oura ring is a handy device that tracks sleep, heart rate, body temperature, respiration rate, and a few other metrics that dictate your ability to recover from a hard day’s slog. It tracks steps as well, but there isn’t much attention paid to activity, the real tracking is done during slumber.

It’s been four nights now, and even if it may not be as accurate as wearing a headband with electrodes attached to my scalp, it certainly backs up what I’m feeling in the morning. My best sleep score has been a pathetic 72 out of 100, and that was when I spent 9 hours in bed. 

I’m either going to have to sleep 11 hours a night, or find some special hack for calming my body for downtime. My resting heart rate takes too long to settle during sleep, and I’m spending the large majority in light sleep, rather than the more restorative stages of REM and deep sleep.

I’ve already taken out most of the likely suspects for sleep disruption. Late meals are out, there’s a sliver of caffeine in the morning, I’ve got my devices fitted with blue-light filters, and have a pair of amber-tinted blockers. I’m meditating morning and night in order to beat the monkey mind. 

But it’s only four nights in, so there’s no reason to get frustrated. I’ll continue with the caffeine detox, add a few extras for settling the body down, with CBD and lavender oil hot in transit. Biohacking can be intense. Now let’s see if I can beat that 72.

The Caveman Guide To Fixing Sleep – How to finally kick insomnia to the curb.