Sleep
Sleep diary
A sleep diary is a short record of each night that you fill in the next morning: when you got into bed, when you fell asleep, how long you were awake in the night, and when you woke up. After a week or two, you add up the hours and see how much you really sleep.
Last updated
Reviewed by Mohammed Raqeeb
What goes in it
What do you write in a sleep diary?
In a sleep diary you write a few clock times every morning, about the night that just ended. The table below has the lines. Copy them into a notebook, with one column for each night.
| Line | Example |
|---|---|
| Got into bedThe time you got into bed. | |
| Fell asleepAbout what time you fell asleep. A guess is fine. | |
| Awake in the nightHow long you were awake in all, after you first fell asleep. | 30 minutes |
| Woke upThe time you woke up for the last time. | |
| Got upThe time you got out of bed. | |
| How it feltHow well you slept, in one word. | Fair |
| Naps, coffee, alcohol, exerciseFill this in before bed: what, and when. | Two coffees, the last at |
A sleep diary does not ask how long you slept. You work that out: the time from when you fell asleep to when you woke up, minus the time you were awake in between. For the night in the table, that is 6h 15m.
An example
A sleep diary example: one week filled in
The sleep diary example below is one week. We made it up for this page. Ben works in an office and gets up at on work days. He filled in each night the next morning, starting with Sunday night.
| Night | In bed | Asleep | Woke up | Slept |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SunSunday | 7h 10m10m awake | |||
| MonMonday | 7h 10m | |||
| TueTuesday | 6h 15m30m awake | |||
| WedWednesday | 7h 10m5m awake | |||
| ThuThursday | 6h 20m | |||
| FriFriday | 7h 30m15m awake | |||
| SatSaturday | 7h 25m | |||
| The whole week | 49h | |||
| An average night | 7h | |||
Ben slept 49h in the week, which is 7h a night. The diary also shows two things he would not have known from memory.
From getting into bed to waking up, his nights were 7h 30m long on average. So about 30m of every night went to falling asleep and lying awake. And his earliest and latest wake-up times are 2h 25m apart, because he sleeps in on the weekend.
Try it
Add up your own sleep diary
The sleep diary below adds up a week for you. It opens with Ben’s week. Press “Start my own week”, pick a night, and set the times.
Ben’s example week
Sunday night
This night: 7h 10m of sleep. From getting into bed to waking up: 7h 45m.
Ben’s average night
7h
7 nights added up, 49h of sleep in all. From getting into bed to waking up, 7h 30m a night.
- Sun7h 10m
- Mon7h 10m
- Tue6h 15m
- Wed7h 10m
- Thu6h 20m
- Fri7h 30m
- Sat7h 25m
Wake-up times run from to . That is 2h 25m apart.
This is the example week, and nothing of it is kept. Once you start your own week, it is kept in this browser. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
How to do it
How to keep a sleep diary
You keep a sleep diary by filling it in at the same two moments every day: after you get up, and before you go to bed. Three things help.
Keep it next to your bed, with a pen.
The National Sleep Foundation says to keep its diary near where you sleep, such as on a bedside table.
Fill in the night within an hour of getting up.
You will not know exactly when you fell asleep, so write the time you think it was. The one-hour rule comes from the standard sleep diary that a group of sleep researchers agreed on (Carney and colleagues, 2012).
Fill in the day’s line before bed.
Write down any naps, coffee, alcohol and exercise, and when. The diaries printed by the NHLBI, a US health agency, and by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a group of sleep doctors, both ask for these.
How long
How long should you keep a sleep diary?
Keep a sleep diary for one to two weeks. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the National Sleep Foundation both say two weeks. The NHLBI’s printed diary has room for one week.
One week shows your work days and one weekend. A second week shows whether the first was a normal one.
What to look for
How to read your sleep diary
You read a sleep diary by adding up the hours, and then looking at three things.
Your average night.
The NHLBI says experts recommend 7 to 9 hours a night for adults. If your average is lower, the sleep debt calculator adds up the gap.
Your wake-up times.
The NHLBI’s list of sleep habits says to keep work nights and weekends no more than about an hour apart. If yours are further apart, read how to fix your sleep schedule.
The day before a short night.
The National Sleep Foundation suggests asking whether a nap or an afternoon coffee came before a bad night. To change your evenings, start with a night routine.
When to ask
When should you show a sleep diary to a doctor?
Show your sleep diary to a doctor if you think you sleep too little or too much. The NHLBI says to talk to your doctor in that case, and to bring its sleep diary so you can go through it together.
This page describes a record and how to add it up. It is not medical advice.
The test
How do you know you are keeping your sleep diary?
The test
You filled in every night on the morning after it
for two weeks in a row.
A sleep diary only works if you fill it in every morning, and a form by the bed is easy to skip.
A good way to keep going is to count your sleep from what you write or say about your day. Most journaling apps only ask how your day felt. They do not show what time you went to bed or how long you slept.
One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in.
You write or say your day in your own words, as it happens or all at once. The app reads what you wrote and counts the hours that went to each part of it: sleep, your evening, work, your phone, and the time you never mentioned (shown as unaccounted). Then it shows those hours over days and weeks. So when you say when you went to bed and when you got up, you can see your hours of sleep for each night and each week.
1. You write your day
2. It counts the hours
- Evening walk0m
- Work0m
- Sleep0m
- Unaccounted24h
3. It shows your week
Evening walk this week: 0m
On 6 of 7 days. The gap is the day without it.
An example day and week.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.
Sources
Where does this page get its facts?
The advice on this page links to the sources below. We read every one in full for this page. The example week is our own.
- Carney, C. E., Buysse, D. J., Ancoli-Israel, S., Edinger, J. D., Krystal, A. D., Lichstein, K. L. and Morin, C. M. (2012). The consensus sleep diary: standardizing prospective sleep self-monitoring. Sleep, 35(2), 287 to 302.
- American Academy of Sleep Medicine (sleepeducation.org) (read ). Sleep Diary.
- National Sleep Foundation (thensf.org) (read ). NSF Sleep Diary.
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (read ). Sleep Diary.
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (read ). How Much Sleep Is Enough?
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (read ). Healthy Sleep Habits.
Keep reading.
- LearnAnswers about sleep, habits, study, people and work, in hours.
- Dream journalHow to keep a dream journal by your bed, the four things to write, an example entry, and a form for this morning’s dream.
- Sleep debt calculatorA week of bed and wake times in, hours short out.
- How to fix your sleep scheduleA day-by-day plan and a test that tells you it worked.
- Where did my week go? calculatorEnter a typical day and see your week accounted and unaccounted.
- Time journalingThe method: write or say your day in your own words, then see it as hours.
Questions
Questions people ask.
What is a sleep diary?
A sleep diary is a short record of each night that you fill in the next morning: when you got into bed, when you fell asleep, how long you were awake in the night, and when you woke up. After a week or two, you add up the hours.
How long should you keep a sleep diary?
Keep a sleep diary for one to two weeks. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says a typical sleep diary covers two weeks. The diary printed by the NHLBI, a US health agency, has room for one week.
Is a sleep diary the same as a sleep tracker?
No. A sleep tracker is a watch, a ring or an app that measures your night for you. A sleep diary is what you remember, written down the same morning.
Is there an app for keeping a sleep diary?
A printed sleep diary and a pen by the bed work well. If you want an app, look for one that shows what time you went to bed and how long you slept. One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in. Think in Numbers reads what you write or say about when you went to bed and when you got up, shows those times on each day, and adds up your hours of sleep each week.
Try it on my day.
Write today down in your own words, and see where the hours went.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.