1. SLEEP &
1-LEG
STANDING
Rajiv Mehta
QS Conference, Amsterdam, 27 November 2011
rajivzume@gmail.com

2. 1-Leg Standing
An exercise to improve sleep quality
Described by Seth Roberts at QS Conference,
Mountain View, CA, May 2011
What to do:
•Stand on one leg ... knee slightly bent ... bob ... to exhaustion
(takes 2-3 minutes) ... do other leg
•3x per day
•At least 4 hours apart
2

3. Experiment plan
1-Leg Standing
•June — 3x / day
•July — nothing
•August — 3x / day
•September — nothing
Sleep amount & quality
•Every morning
3

4. Measuring Sleep
Cool tools:
•Zeo
•Fitbit
•...
Aaargh!
•So distracting
•Can’t fall asleep!
4

5. Measuring Sleep
Qualitative will have to do:
•Hours slept
•Quality of sleep — scale 1-5
- 5 = great! ... I don’t remember anything
- 4 = occasional waking
- 3 = tossing & turning
- 2 = wandering around the house
- 1 = absolutely awful!
Noticeable difference is what I care about anyway
5

6. Use Tonic to track
6

7. Reminders from Tonic
Reminder Schedule
7

8. Data tracked using Tonic
1-Leg Standing Sleep
8

9. Data output
9

10. June July August September
10
Sleep Duration (hrs)
9
8
7
6
Sleep Quality (scale 1-5)
5
4
3
2
1-Leg Standing (episodes)
1
0
28-May 3-Jun 9-Jun 15-Jun 21-Jun 27-Jun 3-Jul 9-Jul 15-Jul 21-Jul 27-Jul 2-Aug 8-Aug 14-Aug 20-Aug 26-Aug 1-Sep 7-Sep 13-Sep 19-Sep 25-Sep
Sleep Duration (hrs) Sleep Quality (scale 1-5) 1-Leg Standing (episodes) 10

11. June July August September
10
9
Patterns?
• Days with 3 episodes of 1-leg
8
standing usually resulted in
7
nights with sleep quality 4
• But ... sleep quality 4 also on other
nights
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
28-May 3-Jun 9-Jun 15-Jun 21-Jun 27-Jun 3-Jul 9-Jul 15-Jul 21-Jul 27-Jul 2-Aug 8-Aug 14-Aug 20-Aug 26-Aug 1-Sep 7-Sep 13-Sep 19-Sep 25-Sep
Sleep Duration (hrs) Sleep Quality (scale 1-5) 1-Leg Standing (episodes) 11

12. June July August September
10
9
Patterns?
• Days with 3 episodes of 1-leg
8
standing usually resulted in
7
nights with sleep quality 4
• But ... sleep quality 4 also on other
nights
6
5
4 mean 3.3
3
2
1
0
28-May 3-Jun 9-Jun 15-Jun 21-Jun 27-Jun 3-Jul 9-Jul 15-Jul 21-Jul 27-Jul 2-Aug 8-Aug 14-Aug 20-Aug 26-Aug 1-Sep 7-Sep 13-Sep 19-Sep 25-Sep
Sleep Duration (hrs) Sleep Quality (scale 1-5) 1-Leg Standing (episodes) 12

13. June July August September
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
28-May 3-Jun 9-Jun 15-Jun 21-Jun 27-Jun 3-Jul 9-Jul 15-Jul 21-Jul 27-Jul 2-Aug 8-Aug 14-Aug 20-Aug 26-Aug 1-Sep 7-Sep 13-Sep 19-Sep 25-Sep
Sleep Duration (hrs) Sleep Quality (scale 1-5) 1-Leg Standing (episodes) 13

14. June July August September
10
9
8
7
6
mean 3.9
5
4
3
2
1
0
28-May 3-Jun 9-Jun 15-Jun 21-Jun 27-Jun 3-Jul 9-Jul 15-Jul 21-Jul 27-Jul 2-Aug 8-Aug 14-Aug 20-Aug 26-Aug 1-Sep 7-Sep 13-Sep 19-Sep 25-Sep
Sleep Duration (hrs) Sleep Quality (scale 1-5) 1-Leg Standing (episodes) 14

15. June July August September
10
9
8
7
6
mean 4.5
5
4
3
2
1
0
28-May 3-Jun 9-Jun 15-Jun 21-Jun 27-Jun 3-Jul 9-Jul 15-Jul 21-Jul 27-Jul 2-Aug 8-Aug 14-Aug 20-Aug 26-Aug 1-Sep 7-Sep 13-Sep 19-Sep 25-Sep
Sleep Duration (hrs) Sleep Quality (scale 1-5) 1-Leg Standing (episodes) 15

16. June July August September
10
9
8
7
mean 4.1
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
28-May 3-Jun 9-Jun 15-Jun 21-Jun 27-Jun 3-Jul 9-Jul 15-Jul 21-Jul 27-Jul 2-Aug 8-Aug 14-Aug 20-Aug 26-Aug 1-Sep 7-Sep 13-Sep 19-Sep 25-Sep
Sleep Duration (hrs) Sleep Quality (scale 1-5) 1-Leg Standing (episodes) 16

17. Learnings? 10
1-Leg Standing not having much 9
impact 8
In general ... I sleep fine 7
• I don’t have a sleep “problem” 6
Occasional nights of poor sleep 5
• Perhaps stress related ... perhaps try 4
relaxation techniques
• But, not a major issue 3
Experiment worthwhile anyway
2
• Just to know I don’t have a problem 1
• More self-aware of my sleep habits 0
28-May 16-Jun 5-Jul 24-Jul 12-Aug31-Aug19-Sep
17

18. Observations
Difficulty of doing
• Despite reminders
• Finding time — 5 minutes x 3 seems trivial, but it’s not
- Staring into space (boring)
- Reading books (okay), newspaper (tough), screen (can’t)
- TV (great ... but then you’re stuck!)
- Music (good)
- Waiting for tea to steep (best)
Ease & value of self-tracking sleep
• No fancy technology required ... self-observations of sleep quality
sufficient (in this case)
• Moment of reflection — “How did I sleep?” — was a pleasant ritual
18