The document describes an experiment tracking the effects of performing 1-leg standing exercises 3 times per day on sleep quality and duration. The experiment consisted of periods where the exercise was performed and not performed. Sleep was tracked using a mobile app and qualitative self-reports of hours slept and quality on a 1-5 scale. Overall, there were no significant patterns observed between performing the exercise and sleep quality, though some individual nights with high quality followed exercise days. The participant concluded they do not have significant sleep issues.

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