A year ago in late July I self diagnosed with a mast cell disorder using AI. The initial two rounds of treatment are done with OTC antihistamines and herbal mast cell stabilizers, even if you've got a doctor handy. The treatment worked, we ruled out mastocytosis and HαT, therefor I have MCAS - mast cell activation syndrome. It's not yet a proper disease, it's a bundle of symptoms that comes together, and there seem to be multiple types.

Anyway, I started with a Garmin Fenix 6S, got a Vivoactive 5 after it broke, and I built myself an application that correlates meds/supplements, the data from Apple's HealthKit, and from Garmin Connect. The first image is the overnight report from the one year anniversary of starting mast cell stabilizers. The black underline is when Garmin counted sleep, red line is heart rate, blue line is stress level. This was the first clear signal that SOMETHING happens when I'm asleep, and I transition from restlessness to sound sleep. The reverse never happens, I don't go from sound sleep to troubled (<== big clue).

The second image was last night. Stress plummets as I dozed off sitting up. Then it rises; some of that has to do with a certain feline who thinks my tummy is a great place for a nap. Then stress drops and I get some restful sleep.

Theory: MCAS for me means chronic nighttime congestion. When I roll over, sinuses drain, and I get decent sleep.

I've checked for sleep apnea using SnoreLab, there are no indications of that. If it was apnea it would be a smooth distribution, both during the night, and for every night, not this restless/restful pattern that turns up about one night out of every three.

I horsed around with Skyflow on my iPad last night, trying to get a time series of sleep position. Any night light that provides sufficient illumination would wreck any chance of restful sleep.

I literally just learned the Vivoactive5 has a pulse oximeter in it and that's cool, gonna get that set up right away, but it would not prove that position change affecting sinuses is the actual event. So I am also getting an Arducam, going to put $68 into an outdoor rated model - once the sleep position study is done, I can put it to work on the coyote that keeps creeping on kitty when she's sitting in th bedroom window at night.

Been getting into tracking lately, and the best part isn’t the data, it’s the stuff I didn’t expect to see. Things I thought mattered turned out to be noise.

What’s your “wait, what?” moment? Something you tracked that showed the opposite of what you expected, or made you actually change a habit.