I don't get enough sleep, and wearing an Oura Ring 5 to bed every night has perfectly captured that fact. Since getting my hands on the gold-standard sleep tracker, I've woken up pretty much every day to metrics highlighted in scolding red, urging me to get more than my typical 6 hours of sleep a night.
The Oura Ring is the best sleep tracker on the market, and one of its unique metrics is its Sleep Debt counter, which tells you how many hour and minutes of sleep you've missed.
"Sleep debt is the difference between the amount of sleep your body needs and the amount you actually get over time," says Dr. Shelby Harris, a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Behavioral Sleep Medicine Specialist at BetterSleep. "If you consistently need around eight hours but only sleep six, you're accumulating roughly two hours of sleep debt each night."
She's right. According to the Oura Ring, the amount of sleep debt I owe is sky high. But is there a way I can repay it? To find out, I asked Dr. Harris to create me a sleep schedule to go from six hours of sleep a night to seven.
Here's what happened to my sleep debt after following this plan for a week...
Key takeaways: Paying your sleep debt at a glance
- Sleep debt is the difference between the amount of sleep your body needs and the amount you actually get over time.
- To repay sleep debt, you have need to stick to a consistent sleep schedule that encourages earlier nights.
- Wake up at the same time: Keep your alarm set for the exact same time every day (even on weekends) to maintain your internal clock and avoid "social jet lag."
- Gradually go to bed earlier: Reduce sleep debt by going to bed 15–30 minutes earlier every two nights rather than trying to force a drastic, sudden change.
- Factor in sleep latency: Head to bed 10–20 minutes before your target sleep time to account for the time it takes you to fall asleep once you're in bed.
- Trust long-term progress: You may not see any progress initially, but sticking to the sleep schedule despite setbacks could lead to decreasing sleep debt by over an hour in just one week.
My sleep before trying Dr Harris's sleep schedule
- Bedtime: 12:25AM
- Fell asleep: 12:36AM
- Total sleep time: 5 hours 41 minutes
- Sleep debt: 8 hours and 50 minutes (accumulated over six weeks)
Before I dive into Dr. Harris’s sleep schedule, let's look at the sleep habits that drove me to seek out specialist advice in the first place.
The night before I started the sleep plan, my Oura Ring recorded a bedtime of 12.25am and a total of 5 hours and 41 minutes of sleep (resulting in an insufficient amount of REM sleep), while my average monthly sleep duration was 6 hours exactly.
Sleeping 6 hours a night on average is cause for concern, especially since ground breaking research indicates that you need to consistently sleep for at least 7 hours a night for optimal health.
This insufficient amount of sleep every night has resulted in a high amount of sleep debt, culminating in a grand total of 8 hours and 50 minutes on the morning before following the schedule — and that's excluding the decades of sleep debt I've accumulated in the years before owning an Oura Ring. I've clocked up 8 hours and 50 minutes of sleep debt in the six weeks I've been wearing the Oura Ring.
So, suffice to say, I definitely needed to change my sleep habits.
Dr. Harris's 7-night sleep schedule
Looking at my sleep debt, I worried that it would be impossible for me to start following a strict sleep plan after years of bad sleep habits. However, Dr. Harris assured me that it's actually better to follow a schedule that takes it slow, rather than a tough regimen that immediately forces you to fall asleep much earlier than the bedtime you're used to.
"The healthiest approach is to gradually increase your nightly sleep by 15-30 minutes, maintain a consistent wake time, and prioritize regular sleep over marathon catch-up nights," explains the behavioural sleep medicine specialist.
"Sleeping until noon on weekends can actually make it harder to fall asleep Sunday night and perpetuate the cycle," she adds.
But why is consistency key to repaying sleep debt? "Our bodies thrive on consistency, so sleeping several extra hours on the weekend can shift your internal body clock and make it harder to fall asleep at your usual bedtime Sunday night," Dr. Harris explains.
According to the sleep doctor, paying back sleep debt in increments (rather than all at once by sleeping in on weekends, something I'm guilty of doing) can help you avoid a cycle of 'social jet lag' that leaves you feeling tired again at the start of the week.
So, what does a debt-repaying schedule look like? Here's Dr. Harris' example of when to fall asleep and wake up if you usually go to sleep at midnight and wake up at 6am:
As you can see, Dr. Harris primarily focuses on wake-up time consistency and a gradually falling asleep earlier and earlier each night. So, the two pillars of a debt-repaying sleep schedule are the following:
- Go to bed 15-30 minutes earlier every two nights
- Wake up at the same time every day (including weekends)
However, it can be difficult to calculate a bedtime that can help you fall asleep by a certain time, as everyone has a different sleep onset latency (the time it takes to fall asleep).
According to research, the typical sleep latency for a healthy adult is about 10 to 20 minutes, so going to bed at least 10 minutes before your intended drift-off time should help. My Oura Ring tells me that I typically takes me around 9-10 minutes to fall asleep, so I decided to go to bed around 15 minutes earlier than my intended sleep time when following the schedule.
So, here's a night-by-night summary of how I got on following Dr. Harris's 7-night schedule (plus how my sleep debt changed throughout the week).
Following Dr Harris's 1-week schedule — see what happened to my sleep debt
So, my aim was to follow Dr. Harris's schedule to the letter, aiming to go to bed 15-30 minutes earlier every two nights. I also set my alarm for 6:45am every night, so I could keep a consistent wake-up pattern and morning schedule.
Night 1: Sleep debt grows
- Bedtime: 12:15AM
- Fell asleep: 12:29AM
- Total sleep time: 5 hours 47 minutes
- Sleep debt: 9 hours and 10 minutes
I know, I know. How could I have ended up with 20 minutes more sleep debt than when I started the sleep schedule? I admit I had the same question myself, until it occurred to me that I was still getting under the recommended sleep duration (even if it's slightly more than the previous night).
I also admit that I needed to be in bed much sooner than my 12:15 a.m. bedtime. According to the 15-30 minute increments rule, as my baseline bedtime was 12:15 a.m., I should have been in bed at around 11.55 p.m. to 12:10 p.m.
"Hopefully, I can fall within that bedtime range tomorrow night," I said to myself after looking at the abysmal metrics.
Night 2: Sleep debt stays the same
- Bedtime: 23:54PM
- Fell asleep: 12:05AM
- Total sleep time: 6 hours 13 minutes
- Sleep debt: 9 hours and 10 minutes
So, I managed to get myself into bed 31 minutes earlier than the baseline bedtime (and 21 minutes earlier than the first night).However, the sleep debt counter still remained at 9 hours and 10 minutes.
That said, my sleep duration did increase from 5 hours and 41 minutes to 6 hours and 13 minutes, which I consider a small victory — I made it over 6 hours.
Night 3: Sleep debt won't budge
- Bedtime: 23:51PM
- Fell asleep: 12:07AM
- Total sleep time: 6 hours and 30 minutes
- Sleep debt: 9 hours and 10 minutes
Technically, I should have hit the hay 15-30 minutes earlier than the second night (the time leap should happen every other night, according to Dr Harris's schedule) but the second night experienced such as jump from the first night that I felt as though I did it pre-emptively.
Again, the sleep debt counter didn't budge, and I have to confess that this was the night when I started to worry that I wouldn't be able to meet the 7-hour goal by the end of the week... completely overlooking the fact that my sleep duration was continuing to rise.
Night 4: Sleep debt falls again
- Bedtime: 23:46PM
- Fell asleep: 12:00AM
- Total sleep time: 6 hours and 16 minutes
- Sleep debt: 9 hours
So, by the fourth night, I did see an improvement in sleep debt, even if it wasn't quite back to its 8 hours and 50 minutes start. I found this a little odd, as my sleep duration was actually 14 minutes shorter than the previous night.
I went to bed 5 minutes earlier than the third night, which wasn't ideal as I should have been getting into bed at around 11.30 p.m. by this point. "But at least I'm going to bed earlier," I reassured myself.
Night 5: Sleep debt goes back to the start
- Bedtime: 23:58PM
- Fell asleep: 12:09AM
- Total sleep time: 6 hours and 17 minutes
- Sleep debt: 8 hours and 50 minutes
And I'm back to going to bed later.
Yes, by Night 5, I went to bed 12 minutes later than the previous night, ending my streak of going to bed earlier every night since the beginning of the schedule.
I should point out two things, however: A) It was a Sunday night, and the Sunday scaries did take hold of me; and B) my sleep debt returned to it's baseline.
Night 6: Sleep debt falls by 20 minutes
- Bedtime: 23:38AM
- Fell asleep: 23:47AM
- Total sleep time: 6 hours 36 minutes
- Sleep debt: 8 hours and 30 minutes
Falling asleep 20 minutes earlier than Night 5, I could already see an improvement in total sleep duration and I was slowly chipping away at my sleep debt. I wanted to fall asleep a little earlier (blame it on my Air pods case going missing), but I managed to repay 20 minutes in a single night and slept 6 hours and 36 minutes (the longest sleep duration I'd experienced since starting the schedule).
Still, I knew that if I wanted to reach the 7 hour mark, I'd need to go to bed 15-30 minutes earlier on the last night — which, as proven above, is easier said than done.
Night 7: I'm sleeping 7 hours and paid back 90 minutes of sleep debt
- Bedtime: 23:18PM
- Fell asleep: 23:24AM
- Total sleep time: 7 hours and 3 minutes
- Sleep debt: 7 hours and 20 minutes
On the seventh and final night, I knew that I needed to get ready for bed as soon as I could. I made sure that everything I needed to go to sleep: eye mask, ear plugs, and no missing items that I needed to frantically search for.
I managed to be in bed by 23:18PM, a 20-minute improvement on the last bedtime and woke up around 2 minutes before my alarm.
Once I rubbed my eyes and reached for my phone, I immediately checked my Oura app. What greeted me was a sleep score of 86, accompanied by the word "OPTIMAL" written in calming blue and a little crown icon.
Sleep duration: 7 hours and 3 minutes. Sleep debt: 7 hours and 20 minutes.
So, I did it. I reached my sleep goal. And while my sleep debt is still in the "High" zone, it still decreased by 90 minutes in one week and 50 minutes on one night.
Bottom line
So, what did I learn from following the Dr. Harris's sleep schedule? To take things gradually and consistently, and most importantly, persevere with it.
There were times, especially when my sleep debt count increased or stagnated, when I wanted to give up and start anew another week. However, I remembered how much the sleep expert stressed that taking things slowly is key, and that sleep debt can't be solved in one night.
So, my advice to anyone wanting to fix their sleep debt is to just keep setting your alarm for the same time each day, keep aiming to go to bed 15-30 minutes earlier every other night (even if you miss the mark by several minutes), and to not get discouraged if you experience a blip.
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