How to keep a sleep diary?

If you have problems sleeping, it might be beneficial to keep a record of your sleeping patterns to get a better understanding of factors that might impact upon your quality of sleep. These may include certain lifestyle behaviours such as exercise participation and alcohol or caffeine intake, but you may also like to include room temperature, stress levels and any other restful periods during the day i.e. naps.

It might also be a good idea to include how you were feeling before and after sleep.

Below is an example sleep diary:

  Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5
What time did you go to sleep?
How long did it take you to first fall asleep?
How many times did you wake in the night?
How long did you sleep in total last night?
Did you take any sleeping tablets/aids?
What time did you wake up?
How would you rate the quality of your sleep last night from 1-5?
Thinking about yesterday; how many of the following did you have: 

Caffeinated drinks?

 Alcoholic drinks?
How much exercise did you do yesterday?

Posted in: Health and Wellbeing