I started sleeping in the daytime instead of at night, but now I am not seeing the sleep report and my Health Score has dropped. Is this a bug with the app?
We highly recommend sleeping at night. You can follow other schedules and switch the app to “Nonstandard sleep mode” to turn off the built-in timing, but it is likely your Health Score will go down.
This isn’t something we are doing, but just based on the signals of your body.
The score is based on canonical signals like your benchmarks, HRV, blood levels, bodyfat, blood pressure and thousands of other signals. If you are getting bad sleep (or even jetlagged from travel), this will show up in your trends and show some warnings.
If you are forced to work at night, this may be unavoidable. But if you have control over your schedule, we highly recommend sleeping at night for the best results.
What happens in your body?
Your body runs on a roughly 24-hour clock, and light is what sets it. In the morning, light tells your brain the day has started: cortisol rises to wake you up and your body temperature climbs. In the evening, as it gets dark, melatonin rises and your body gets ready for sleep. Digestion, blood sugar control, hormone release and repair all follow this schedule.
Sleeping during the day means sleeping while that clock is telling you to be awake. Daytime sleep tends to be shorter and more easily disrupted, because light, noise and a rising body temperature keep pulling you out of it. Then you end up eating, training and working during the hours your body has set aside for rest and repair.
Study A review of shift work and sleep found the most common problems are trouble falling asleep, shorter sleep, and sleepiness at work that carries into days off. What it means: Sleeping against the body clock usually means sleeping less. |
The effects show up fast. Within days, the hormones that control appetite and blood sugar shift.
Study Ten adults lived on a 28-hour day in a lab for 10 days, so they ate and slept at every hour of the body clock. When their schedule ran about 12 hours out of phase, leptin, the fullness hormone, fell 17% and blood sugar rose 6% even with 22% more insulin. Three of eight people had glucose responses after meals in the prediabetic range. What it means: Sleeping and eating against the body clock changes appetite and blood sugar within days, which is why so many charts move together. |
Over a few weeks, metabolism slows down too.
Study Healthy adults spent three weeks in a lab sleeping 5.6 hours per 24 on a rotating 28-hour day, much like a shift schedule. Their resting metabolic rate dropped, and the insulin released after a meal fell 32%, leaving blood sugar higher for longer. Three of 21 reached prediabetic levels. Everything returned to normal after nine days of regular sleep. What it means: Weeks of misaligned sleep slow metabolism, and the body recovers once the schedule is fixed. |
Over years, the risks add up. Long-term night work is linked to higher rates of diabetes and heart disease.
Study Among about 177,000 nurses followed for up to 20 years, the risk of type 2 diabetes rose with every additional year of rotating night shifts, reaching 58% higher after 20 or more years. Part of the link ran through weight gain. What it means: The longer the schedule lasts, the larger the risk. |
Study A review of 34 studies covering about 2 million people found shift work linked to 23% more heart attacks and 24% more coronary events than daytime work, including after adjusting for other risk factors. What it means: Years of working nights show up in the heart. |
That doesn’t mean you can never do it, but it does have a real cost you should be aware of, and balance with positive factors.
Study In 74,862 nurses followed for 22 years, five or more years of rotating night shifts was linked to an 11% higher risk of death from any cause, and a 19 to 23% higher risk of death from heart disease. What it means: Night work shows up in lifespan, which is why it is worth avoiding when you have the choice. |
How should I change it in the app?
Turn on Nonstandard sleep mode. It will let you sleep at any time or have multiple sleep sessions, instead of assuming your bedtime is going to be at night after 6pm.
If you are not sleeping at night, we can’t really score it. It would basically be such a low score that it wouldn’t help. Instead, the other signals are weighted more heavily: your food quality, your fitness, your mood, your mind performance benchmarks, and more.
If everything else is done well, you can still be in good health. But it is playing on extra-hard mode, and not advised if you have other options.
Your Health Score refreshes on a schedule, so sleep that syncs late can take a while to show up in it.
What can I do if I have to work?
Keep your sleep times consistent. Go to bed and wake up at the same times every day, including days off. Your body clock adapts best to a schedule that stays in one place.
Study In 60,977 UK Biobank adults who wore a wrist sensor, how regular their sleep was predicted mortality better than how long they slept. Compared with the least regular group, the more regular sleepers had a 20 to 48% lower risk of dying from any cause. What it means: Sleeping and waking at the same times every day matters, even on an unusual schedule. |
Get bright light when you wake up. Light is the strongest signal for your body clock, so get outside or into bright light at the start of your day.
Make your bedroom dark and quiet. Blackout curtains, an eye mask and earplugs help daytime sleep last longer.
Keep light low before bed. Sunglasses on the way home from a night shift help your body start winding down.
Try creatine.Our creatine guide covers how to take it.
Study In a placebo-controlled trial, 29 healthy adults stayed awake for 21 hours and took either creatine or a placebo in the evening. Creatine reduced the drop in logic, number and language tasks and in reaction-time testing, by up to 12%. What it means: The trial used one large dose, about 14 grams for a 70 kg adult. Most people take 3 to 5 grams every day instead. |
Beyond that, be very disciplined with everything else: your consistent schedule, nutrition, exercise, daily meditation. Basically no wiggle room on the rest. You can experiment with these and see the effect on your score.