I had a plan. I really did.

Convinced that my girlfriend got sub-par sleep, I was going to have her use Zeo for a month, show her just how bad her sleep was, then write about it for you all to read.

Although it may not seem like I’m Boyfriend of the Year, I am a great sleeper. Didn’t think that my girlfriend could say the same about herself.

Turns out I was wrong.

Perception vs Reality - Not always a Pretty Thing

I was expecting her to have a decent ZQ, but something on the lower end of her age range. Not horrible sleep, but certainly less - and of a lower quality- than what she could get.

She ended up with an average of 96. My own average is a 97. I was blown away.

How could this have happened, I asked myself. Did I wake up in Oppositeland?

No.

The truth of the matter is that she is actually a pretty good sleeper. Her secret weapon?

It’s me!

Your Bed Partner is Your Secret Sleep Weapon

Social scientists have noticed that one partner’s behavior can influence the other - and it looks like this was a classic example of good habits rubbing off.

My girlfriend and I have been living together for almost six months. During that time, she’s adapted to my sleeping schedule and now goes to bed and wakes up at roughly the same times as I do. Keeping a set bedtime and risetime - even on the weekends- is a hallmark of good sleep hygiene and good sleep.

Now that she's turning in at about the same time I am - instead of staying up much later and cutting into her total sleep time - she gets way better sleep now than before.

Our bedroom is also much more attuned to sleeping. My girlfriend now benefits from blackout curtains - to cut down on wake-ups due to light - as well as a fan to help drown out any noise. No doubt that's also contributed to her good sleep, too.

My Slice of Humble Pie

So what does her sleep now look like? On a whole, she gets about seven and a half to eight hours of sleep per night. When you break it down, it looks something like this:

• almost 2 hours of Deep sleep
• almost 3 hours of REM sleep
• about 3 hours of Light sleep.
• about 20 minutes in Wake, on average.

As you can see, my girlfriend is sleeping much better than I imagined

Check out my sleep below, then look at my girlfriend's graph above. Similar sleep schedule, similar ZQs and similar sleep quality. Our sleep architecture is a little different, but certainly not outside the realm of "typical". A typical night of sleep for me

So while my little experiment backfired -- my girlfriend now has dibs on the “I told you so”--it succeeded in different ways.

My editor, Andi, said it best: “That’s the great thing about science: even when it doesn’t turn out the way you expect, it still tells you something interesting.”

*Sigh*

Indeed.

Keith (Ave ZQ: 97) is a writer and the newest member of the Zeo Web Content team. When it comes to sleep, he’s a Viking.