The results (so far) of my experiments with the 1-Leg Standing exercise (per Seth Roberts) and its impact on my sleep, using the Tonic iPhone app to remember and record the activities.

1. SLEEP &
1-LEG
STANDING
Rajiv Mehta
QS Show & Tell #20, San Francisco, 24 August 2011
rajivzume@gmail.com

2. 1-Leg Standing
What to do:
•Stand on one leg ... knee slightly bent ... bob ... to
exhaustion ... do other leg
•3x per day
•At least 4 hours apart
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3. Experiment plan
1-Leg Standing
•June — 3x / day
•July — nothing
•August — 3x / day
Sleep amount & quality
•Every morning
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4. Measuring Sleep
Cool tools:
•Zeo
•Fitbit
•...
Aaargh!
•So distracting
•Can’t fall asleep!
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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 = aaargh!
Noticeable difference is what I care about anyway
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6. Reminders from Tonic
Reminder Schedule
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7. Data tracked using Tonic
1-Leg Standing Sleep
8

8. Data output
9

9. June July August
10
9 Sleep Duration (hrs)
8
7
6
Sleep Quality (scale 1-5)
5
4
3
2
1-Leg Standing (episodes)
1
0
28-May 1-Jun 5-Jun 9-Jun 13-Jun 17-Jun 21-Jun 25-Jun 29-Jun 3-Jul 7-Jul 11-Jul 15-Jul 19-Jul 23-Jul 27-Jul 31-Jul 4-Aug 8-Aug 12-Aug 16-Aug 20-Aug
Sleep Duration (hrs) Sleep Quality (scale 1-5) 1-Leg Standing (episodes) 10

10. June July August
10
9
8
7
6
Patterns?
• Days with 3 1-leg standing
5
episodes usually resulted in nights
mean 3.3
with sleep quality 4
4
• But ... sleep quality 4 also on other
nights
3
2
1
0
28-May 1-Jun 5-Jun 9-Jun 13-Jun 17-Jun 21-Jun 25-Jun 29-Jun 3-Jul 7-Jul 11-Jul 15-Jul 19-Jul 23-Jul 27-Jul 31-Jul 4-Aug 8-Aug 12-Aug 16-Aug 20-Aug
Sleep Duration (hrs) Sleep Quality (scale 1-5) 1-Leg Standing (episodes) 12

11. June July August
10
9
8
7
6
5
mean 3.9
4
3
2
1
0
28-May 1-Jun 5-Jun 9-Jun 13-Jun 17-Jun 21-Jun 25-Jun 29-Jun 3-Jul 7-Jul 11-Jul 15-Jul 19-Jul 23-Jul 27-Jul 31-Jul 4-Aug 8-Aug 12-Aug 16-Aug 20-Aug
Sleep Duration (hrs) Sleep Quality (scale 1-5) 1-Leg Standing (episodes) 14

12. June July August
10
9
8
7
6
mean 4.5
5
4
3
2
1
0
28-May 1-Jun 5-Jun 9-Jun 13-Jun 17-Jun 21-Jun 25-Jun 29-Jun 3-Jul 7-Jul 11-Jul 15-Jul 19-Jul 23-Jul 27-Jul 31-Jul 4-Aug 8-Aug 12-Aug 16-Aug 20-Aug
Sleep Duration (hrs) Sleep Quality (scale 1-5) 1-Leg Standing (episodes) 16

13. Conclusions
Sleeping better
But ... noisy data
•Continue Sep (off) and Oct (on)
So many other variables
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14. Observations
Difficulty of doing
•Despite reminders
•Finding time — 5 minutes x 3 seems trivial, but it’s not
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15. 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)
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16. Observations
Inconsistency
•Time to exhaustion varies (by depth of bobbing)
•Some variation in right-leg vs left-leg
•Does it matter?
4
3
Minutes
2
1
Right
Left
0
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17. Try it yourself
If you use Tonic ...
•Download 1-Leg Standing and Sleep tonics at
www.TonicSelfCare.com/QS
•Go to “Tonic Library”
If you don’t use Tonic ...
•Well ... give it a try
•Free to first 5 QS’ers who email me: rajivzume@gmail.com
& mention “CCA”
And “Like” Tonic on Facebook!
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