One of the most useful things for me with the Xiaomi Mi Band is the sleep tracker. I check my sleep data pretty much every morning, and it helps me figure out if I got enough rest the night before and what to do if when I haven’t.

I’ve known for a long time that I usually don’t get enough sleep at night, and I’m not exactly proud of it. I find it way easier to focus at night because it’s so peaceful and calm. While some of you “early to bed, early to rise” folks might not get this, I’m sure the night owls out there totally do.

But whatever your sleep style is, we can all agree on one thing: not getting enough sleep comes with some serious health risks. Seriously, Google it right now! You’ll find tons of research showing how bad sleep deprivation can be. I was gonna link some articles I’ve read about this before, but googling them flooded me with a bunch more. I skimmed a couple, and it freaked me out so much that instead of finishing this post last night around midnight, I went straight to bed!

Anyway, I’ve been tracking my sleep for a few weeks now, and I know I need to step it up. Don’t get me wrong, I always knew I wasn’t getting enough sleep, I just didn’t have the hard numbers… or maybe I was too lazy to actually track it. That’s why the Mi Band’s so helpful, it does all the work for me. Now I know I usually get between 3 to 5 hours a night, around 3 if I stay up too late, and just over 5 if I hit the sack a bit “early.”

Now that I’ve got a clear picture of how much sleep I’m getting and what I need to fix, it’s one less thing to stress about. And honestly, if you saw my numbers, you’d see I don’t have that much to tweak. Since I work from home all the time, I can sleep whenever I want and wake up whenever I feel like it. Some of you who have to get up early to commute might think it’s tougher for you to fix your sleep, trust me, it’s not! I’d argue it’s actually harder for me ‘cause I don’t have that nudge to stick to a set schedule. I end up staying up too late and, for some weird reason, waking up earlier than I should.

My point? Whether you can pick your wake-up time or not, there’s almost always a way to carve out enough sleep (and if there isn’t, you need to rethink what you’re doing, because you’re probably better off alive). I’ve been slacking on this for way too long, but I’m set on changing that now.

So how do we pull this off? Easy! track your daily sleep habits and adjust accordingly. Sort out your schedule ‘til you’re getting at least 6 hours (maybe 7, depending on how you feel). I totally recommend grabbing a sleep tracker. Because it’s been a game-changer for me. I tried some Android apps a while back, but they didn’t cut it. I don’t like keeping my phone that close to me in bed, and I’m not even sure how accurate they are. So, get a real sleep tracker (I mean, $20+ for a shot at better health is a steal =) ).

Once you know how much sleep you’re getting (or how little, if you’re like me), figure out how much more you need for a healthy amount and set up a schedule.

And most importantly, stick to that sleep schedule like your life depends on it. ‘cause it probably does!

~SeeJay