For Athletes
Training & analysis
Sleep: what to log and what good looks like
How sleep hours and sleep quality interact, and what trend patterns matter.
What the Hub captures
The WellnessLog model has two sleep fields:
sleep_hours (decimal, e.g. 7.5): hours slept last
night.
sleep_quality (1 to 10): subjective quality, 1 =
terrible, 10 = perfect.
Both are optional, but having both produces a clearer
signal than either alone.
Why two fields
Hours alone misses the case where you were in bed 8 hours
but slept poorly. Quality alone misses the case where you
slept great for 5 hours but were short. Together:
- Good hours + good quality: rested.
- Good hours + low quality: probably stressed, or
woke up several times.
- Low hours + good quality: short but deep; OK
occasionally, problematic if recurring.
- Low hours + low quality: red flag, especially across
multiple days.
What "good" looks like for endurance athletes
- Hours: most athletes need 7.5 to 9 hours in active
training blocks; less is possible in light weeks. Below
6.5 consistently impairs adaptation.
- Quality: 7 to 9 most nights. Anything below 5 for
multiple nights is a signal.
- Variability: weekly average matters more than any
single night.
The Hub does not prescribe a per-athlete sleep target.
Athletes vary; what stays constant is whether their own
baseline holds.
The concerning trigger
Logging sleep_hours under 5 fires a concerning flag (see
Concerning flags explained).
The flag is on the entry, not a multi-day pattern: a single
4-hour night flags.
There is no flag for low sleep quality scores alone.
Quality at 3 every night for a week reads as a clear signal
to the coach but does not auto-flag.
Patterns to watch in the trend
- Consistent loss of 30 to 60 minutes vs your typical:
often the first sign of building stress, illness, or
overreaching.
- Late-night drift (sleep onset moving later week over
week): typically work stress or screen habit, not
training.
- Multiple wake-ups (low quality, normal hours):
worth checking caffeine intake, evening exercise timing,
alcohol.
What you can do
- Be honest in logging. Smoothing the numbers does not
help.
- Add context in the notes field. "Travel", "kid sick",
"stressful work week" goes a long way to interpreting a
bad week.
- Pair with HRV and RHR if you have a device that
captures them. Multiple low-recovery signals together is
stronger than any one.
See also:
Logging daily wellness,
Concerning flags explained,
HRV: where it fits.