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Training · sleep

Client name: Bill

Did I sleep better when I worked out harder?

Presenting Question

  • Question Verbatim from You: “Did I sleep better when I worked out harder?”
  • Interpretation of the Question (an attempt to make the question slightly more precise, computable and scientific)
    • In your question you said “sleep better”. We are interpreting that as two measures from your OuraOura makes a ring worn on the finger that measures sleep, heart rate, heart rate variability and skin temperature overnight, and scores each night. More at ouraring.com ring: total sleep, and deep sleep, which you said you want more of.
    • “Worked out harder” we are interpreting as more sets that day, in the StrongStrong is a phone app for logging weightlifting workouts in fine detail: every exercise, and the weight and reps of every set. More at strong.app app, with a logged rest day counting as zero.
    • Precisely: after a day with more sets, is that night's total or deep sleep different?

Answer to the Presenting Question: No

No, based on the analysis below, and within its assumptions and limits.

  • Total sleep: no change as big as the smallest change this test could have seen, about 4.3 minutes a night per 10 sets.
  • Deep sleep: no change as big as the smallest change this test could have seen, about 1.3 minutes a night per 10 sets.
  • A typical lifting day is about 21 sets, so a change of a few minutes a night would have shown.

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After a lifting day, did you sleep differently?

Each night set against whether you lifted that day, within each epoch.

Epoch B, after lifting6.18 hEpoch B, after rest6.07 hEpoch C, after lifting6.94 hEpoch C, after rest6.97 h
Average total sleep, hours a night (bars start at 5.82 h)

Within each epoch the two are no more than 6 minutes apart. The bars start above zero so the gap can be seen at all.

For p-values, corrections for testing many questions, effect sizes and the smallest detectable differences, see The statistics behind this below.

Data Source(s) and Date(s)

  • Data sources:
    • Devices:
      • OuraOura makes a ring worn on the finger that measures sleep, heart rate, heart rate variability and skin temperature overnight, and scores each night. More at ouraring.com ring data: total and deep sleep each night, filed under the evening it began
      • StrongStrong is a phone app for logging weightlifting workouts in fine detail: every exercise, and the weight and reps of every set. More at strong.app app data workout log, exported 2026-10-01
    • Textual sources:
      • Your conversations with PerSci, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-27: when each trainer started, that every set you log is taken to failure, and what the TrainerizeTrainerize is an app personal trainers use to send clients their workouts and to log what was done. More at trainerize.com session ratings were.
  • Dates: 2024-03-15 to 2026-09-28: 548 nights inside the stretches the StrongStrong is a phone app for logging weightlifting workouts in fine detail: every exercise, and the weight and reps of every set. More at strong.app log was running, 227 in Epoch B and 321 in Epoch C.
  • People and Organizations Named or Anonymized:
    • Named (in your template names, your notes, or what you told us): None
    • Anonymized (shown by alias, inside your own notes and quotes too): Trainer A (personal trainer, 2023-08-08 to 2024-11-10), Trainer B (personal trainer since 2024-11-11)

What we compared (independent variable)

How many sets you did that day.

  • Sets that day, 0 on a rest day
  • Compared only within the same epoch and the same weekday, so a weekend habit cannot pass for an effect

What we measured (dependent variable)

That night's sleep.

  • Total sleep
  • Deep sleep

The test written down beforehand: No

Registered on 2026-10-25. Neither measure moved with the day's sets by more than chance would make.

Good and bad nights come in runs, and there are seasons. You asked about both after the result; a second check that keeps runs and seasons intact gives the same answer.

For p-values, corrections for testing many questions, effect sizes and the smallest detectable differences, see The statistics behind this below.

Caveats

  • Steam days are gym days. This does not separate the steam room from the workout.
  • The ring measures sleep, not how rested you feel, and it times sleep better than it stages it, so deep sleep is the softer of the two.
  • This describes a pattern in your data. It is not medical advice.

Related Pages

The statistics behind this

Correlation of the day's sets with that night's sleep, both centred within epoch × weekday; permutation p over 20,000 shuffles within those strata; slope per 10 sets with a bootstrap range; smallest detectable slope; Holm across the six questions tested together on the same history. Added after the result: the same statistic against every whole-week circular shift of the sets series within each run of logging (an exact null), and again after removing a 29-day rolling mean from both series.

OutcomeNightsPer 10 setsRangeDetectablepHolm (6)
total sleep548−1 min−5 min to +3 min4.3 min0.641.00
deep5480 min−2 min to +1 min1.3 min0.511.00
Added after the resultSeriesShiftsrp
total sleepas is1320-0.0200.67
total sleeptrend removed1320-0.0130.78
deepas is1320-0.0290.54
deeptrend removed1320-0.0240.60

Detectable: A real change this big would just pass the test, about half the time. One about 1.4 times as big would pass it about 4 times in 5. A smaller real change could easily go unseen, so 'no change found' means 'no change this big'.

What do you want to know next?

Each one runs on your own export. What you asked is written down with today's date before anything is computed, so the question stays separate from the answer.

Check it on scans still to come

Everything on this page uses history you had already lived. The same test, the same code, on six-week blocks that start after the registration (2026-10-25) is the real check. At a scan every two to six weeks that takes a year or more.

Nothing but to keep scanning and logging as you do.

Running from 2026-10-25

If you have a health-related question about your own data, join the waitlist for your own custom analysis.

Act soon: it is free while we stand this service up and refine it. All we ask in return is permission to publish a results page like the ones we have made for our other clients. We never publish your surname or your date of birth. The page shows a first name or a pseudonym, whichever you prefer, and your age in years and your sex.

Made by PerSci from your OuraOura makes a ring worn on the finger that measures sleep, heart rate, heart rate variability and skin temperature overnight, and scores each night. More at ouraring.com ring and your StrongStrong is a phone app for logging weightlifting workouts in fine detail: every exercise, and the weight and reps of every set. More at strong.app log. It describes a pattern in your data; it is not medical advice.