Fitbit tracked 6 billion nights of sleep—and found one simple change in your routine can help you snooze better
Everyone knows they should be getting more sleep.
In fact, one-third of American adults don't get enough sleep on a regular basis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and two-thirds of workers admit they would be better employees if they managed to get more shut-eye, according to a survey by Glassdoor.
Business leaders like Jeff Bezos, Sheryl Sandberg, Bill Gates and Arianna Huffington preach the benefits of improving your sleep to increase productivity, efficiency and creativity.
And while juggling responsibilities at home and at work can make a good night's rest feel out of reach, there is one simple change you can make to start improving the quality of your sleep.
Go to bed at the same time every night.
That's according to an analysis of the sleep habits of Fitbit users as reported by Yahoo Finance. In March, Fitbit started tracking sleep data from customers wearing the company's wrist bands at night and compiled information on six billion nights slept. The data is anonymous and looked at in the aggregate, according to Yahoo Finance.
Fitbit found consistency was key.
"If your bedtime varies by two hours over the week, you'll average a half hour of sleep a night less than someone whose bedtime varies by only 30 minutes," Yahoo Finance reports.
So staying up late on weekends and then jumping in bed early on Sunday nights to prepare for Monday morning, for example, can result in poor rest. It results in what Fitbit data scientist Karla Gleichauf calls "social jetlag."
Across the US, the data showed that Boston had the most widely varying bedtimes, with a difference of weekend bedtimes and weekday bedtimes totaling 38.7 minutes. New York had the most widely varying wake-up times, with an average difference of 73 minutes over the week.
Experts agree, setting up a sleep routine can improve your rest.
"Most people need a good hour of winding down down time before they're just physically and mentally ready to go bed," Dr. Philip Gehrman, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine told CNBC Make It in 2017.
Do something calming like reading or coloring before bed, he suggests, and create a 10-minute "worry time" session earlier in the day to prevent thoughts of stress at work from popping into your mind at night.
Daily exercise in the morning can also help you sleep better at night, according to author of "Sleep Smarter," Shawn Stevenson.
"Why it works is it is something called a cortisol reset," Stevenson explains on an episode of the podcast "Kwik Brain." Cortisol is a hormone that regulates things like your metabolism and stress. "By exercising in the morning, you get this cortisol boost, and that sets the template because your cortisol should be up in the morning and gradually drop as the day goes on."
You could also take a cue from the nightly routines of business magnates: "Shark Tank" investor Daymond John reviews his goals every night before bed, Bill Gates reads for and hour and Oprah meditates twice each day.
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