To try improving my mental health & sleep I received the S+ by Resumed to test out and review. Anyone with any kind of mental health issues knows just how important getting enough sleep is. Add in Chronic pain & most days are a disaster so I was interested to see how the S+ could help me. The S+ is a sleep tracking device which is COMPLETELY wireless! No wristbands or pad’s to place anywhere. A plus for me as I don’t like wearing wristbands whilst I sleep or having any strange lumps in the bed.
I was interested in seeing how the S+ tracked my sleep and see if there were any ways of improving my sleep routine to help manage my anxiety mainly! It took me a while to remember to set the S+ to Sleep each night due to my medication knocking me out most nights! (Hence disappearing from twitter at random times each night!)
The box contains:
- S+ Pod
- S+ Frame
- 59″ micro USB cable
- AC adapter with dual USB ports
- User manual
The S+ Pod sits in the S+ frame which allows you to adjust the positioning of the pod. The pod needs to be within arms length of where you sleep, I have a small bedside unit next to my bed so I placed the S+ on there and adjusted the position so that it pointed towards my chest. This allows the S+ to monitor your heartbeat.
S+ App
I downloaded the S+ By Resmed App & synched my phone to the device via Bluetooth. I looked through the S+ Guide to get an idea of how the app & monitor work.
Pre-Sleep
The S+ requires you to let it know when you are going to sleep using the app. This then takes you through Pre-Sleep where it asks you questions about your day. Questions include things how many caffeine drinks you’ve had, how much exercise you’ve done, how stressful your day was and a few other’s too. This helps the monitor to work out where improvements can be made to improve your sleep score.
Monitoring your sleep
The S+ records how long it takes you to fall asleep each night along with monitoring your sleep across the night. There is also an option to set an alarm to wake you up at an optimal time based on your sleep. Each night you are given a sleep score from 0-100. I started off quite low with a score of 65 on my first night with only 64% REM sleep & 70% Deep Sleep with 9 disturbances across the night.
Using the data from the first 3 nights helps the S+ work out what could help improve your sleep score. This also takes into account the room temperature & lux. My first night the temperature was 25c & lux 0 (light). These are considered good ranges for sleep so I didn’t need to change anything there.
Still tired but less stressed
Seeing all this information the S+ tracks made me realise just how hard I’ve been pushing myself. Even following the tips my sleep only improves by a tiny bit because I’m still waking in pain. It can be tough being a spoonie and always feeling exhausted, it sometimes makes you feel like maybe you are just lazy. Seeing on the chart how frequently I wake and just how much time I spend awake across the night made me realise it was no wonder I still woke up exhausted! My first score has been my highest so far this week!
Not being so hard on myself after seeing how little sleep I’ve managed each morning has helped my mood. Now I don’t feel quite as guilty saying I’ve had enough & I’m too tired for the day, especially when I see I’ve had a rough night. It’s one thing knowing you are exhausted it’s another being able to see exactly why. Seeing how many times I wake across the night I realised I wake more than I thought too.
Improving my mental health & sleep
I have actually been a little less anxious since remembering to set the S+ each night. I’ve felt less guilty about dosing up where I can see the pain is waking me regularly & it’s not just in my head. Following tips along the way has been helpful too & keeping track of my caffeine intake as I thought I actually drank more than I do across the day!
I’ve also felt a little less depressed each day as I don’t feel like I am just lazy constantly. I can see I’m not sleeping well & as shown in the graph above shows timings too. I know I’m going to bed at a decent time & I know I’m at least trying to get more sleep & rest enough each day but I’m still waking which is obviously why I still exhausted every day.
I would definitely recommend the S+ as it shows the information you want to know & provides some really helpful tips too. I’m determined to keep using the monitor and try to improve where I can! I wish I had remembered to try it out much sooner, I may do another post soon to share with you all how continued use has helped!