What is sleep efficiency, and what's a good percentage?
Sleep efficiency is the share of time in bed that you actually spend asleep — total sleep time divided by time in bed, as a percentage. If you're in bed for 8 hours but asleep for 7, that's about 88%. It's a quick gauge of sleep quality: most healthy adults sit around 85% or higher, and a low figure points to trouble falling or staying asleep.
What lowers sleep efficiency
Long time to fall asleep, frequent night-time waking, or lying awake before getting up all drag efficiency down. Common culprits are caffeine and alcohol, an irregular schedule, screens late at night, and stress. Because it isolates 'time asleep vs time in bed', it can reveal poor sleep even when your total hours look fine.
How Vita shows sleep efficiency
Vita reads your sleep from WHOOP or Apple Watch and reports efficiency alongside duration, deep/REM structure, consistency and sleep debt. Seeing efficiency next to the other metrics helps you tell whether the issue is not enough time in bed, or poor-quality time in bed.
FAQ
What's a good sleep efficiency?
Around 85% or higher is generally considered good for adults. Consistently below ~80% suggests difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep worth addressing.
How is sleep efficiency calculated?
Total time asleep divided by total time in bed, expressed as a percentage. An Apple Watch or WHOOP estimates both automatically.
How do I improve sleep efficiency?
A consistent schedule, limiting caffeine and alcohol, a wind-down routine, and using the bed only for sleep all tend to raise efficiency over time.