The lockdown has been great for our sleep, new data shows
Despite people complaining of vivid dreams and late night insomnia, new data from Withings shows that, on the whole, we’re getting a bit more beauty sleep than normal. And the lockdown is having some other strangely beneficial health effects, too.
According to the company’s stats, people are sleeping an extra few minutes every night, with Americans getting an extra 12 minutes of kip and Brits an extra 15.
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Apparently that sleep is fairly high quality, too. Withings has a ‘Sleep’ rating that takes into account duration, regularity and interruptions, and most countries have seen an improvement of between two and three points along this scale.
In other good news, there’s also been a big dip in abnormal heart rates detected during sleep. The UK has seen a 44% drop in abnormal rates across the weekend. In America there’s been a 43% decrease, and there’s a huge 66% reduction in Italy.
These drop rates are slightly less extravagant when you look at data taken from the weekdays, but they still show a remarkable shift.
Other snippets from the data are less surprising: step count is down across countries, and activities like swimming and tennis are suddenly less popular. But there are a lot of yoga and hiking sessions being logged in their place.
There’s a small increase in weight too, with the average UK person putting on .35 lbs and US citizens adding just .21 lbs. But these seem like trivial amounts, especially as all that freshly baked banana bread has to be eaten by somebody, right?
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These findings are based on data collected from Withings customers, so it could be that better sleep and minimal weight gain is somehow associated with smartwatch-owners.
But the reduction in step count does at least seem to be in line with data from other sources, such as the dramatic fall in foot traffic registered by Apple’s Mobility Trends.