In an effort to maintain awareness of my sleep patterns I decided to keep a very simple sleep journal. I don’t know how useful this will prove to be though it may help identify trends or problems caused by specific changes in my sleeping habits. My sleep doctor may find the data interesting at my next visit, when he checks up on my CPAP treatment. Rather than sign up for another third-party service, I decided to use a resource I already I had.

I’ve been using MobileMe for a while. I’ll transition to the new iCloud service once it becomes available. In MobileMe I created a new “Sleep Journal” calendar in which I enter information about how well I slept and how I felt the day after. Specifically, each day I add an all-day event with a title that describes how I feel that morning. For example, I’ll enter “Extreme Fatigue”, “Slightly Fatigued”, “Moderately Rested”, or “Well Rested” along with some other descriptions or combinations of those (some days I’m a little bit tired but somewhat rested).

I also add short notes to each entry that may include information about new equipment that I used, when I went to bed, how often I remember waking up, or even if I woke up before or after my alarm clock went off. Eventually, I may create a spreadsheet, database, or chart based on the information.

I don’t enter very many details. My goal was to make it simple and easy to access in order to help ensure that I continue to maintain the log.