Your usual bedtime and wake time are the middle of your last 14 nights, so one late night barely moves them. Consistency is how close each night's bedtime is to your usual, and it's one part of your sleep score.
Your usual
Because your usual is the middle of your last 14 nights rather than an average, a single late night or lie-in hardly shifts it. A week of later nights will, and it moves back as your nights do.
NOYU shows your usual once it has 7 nights. On the Sleep page, Your nights draws your usual under your last 7 nights, so you can see each one against it.
Consistency
Consistency is how far each night's bedtime is from your usual bedtime. Within 15 minutes counts as your usual. It's one part of your sleep score, and the Consistency page shows each night against your usual. A low figure means that night's bedtime was further from your usual.
Why a regular schedule matters
Research suggests going to sleep and waking at similar times matters for health alongside how long you sleep. Large studies, such as one of about 60,000 UK Biobank participants in 2024, link more regular sleep with better long-term health, even among people who sleep for similar lengths. These studies are observational, so they show a link rather than proof, but a steady schedule also helps your body clock settle.
Nights that don't count, and travel
- I didn't sleep. A night you mark this way is left out of consistency.
- After travel. Each night reads on the time zone you slept in, so a trip doesn't look like a run of very late or early nights. If a night's times look shifted, open the night and choose Edit this night from its menu: the Time zone row sets where you slept.
Streaks and the experiment
- Regular bedtime and Regular wake-up are your streaks for nights within 15 minutes of your usual bedtime and wake time. See Sleep bests and streaks.
- Keep a consistent bedtime is an experiment for building it: a night within 15 minutes of your bedtime counts.
Being regular is not the same as being inside your bed window: you can go to bed at the same late time every night. See Your bed and wake windows.
