Measuring with a wearable device is a great option for those with irregular sleep habits, as it can simplify your measuring routine.
If you tend to have irregular sleep habits or are a shift worker and using an approved wearable as your measuring device, there are a few things to consider depending on your schedule:
- If you always have the same sleeping schedule, whether you always sleep during the night or day (without shifting between schedules), you don’t need to adjust anything since this is what your body is used to. You can include your temperature every day.
- If you alternate between sleeping schedules on a regular basis, for example, if you sleep during the day five times a week and at night twice a week, it's best to only include your temperature when you’re on the schedule you use the most (in this case, after sleeping during the day) and exclude your temperature readings on the other days.
- If your sleeping schedule is very irregular, and you tend to switch schedules from one day to the next without any specific pattern, this may affect the quality of your data. As a result, the algorithm may struggle to identify your fertility status, which can impact your app experience. If you’d like to discuss your subscription options, please reach out to us, and we’d be happy to help.
If you ever need to transition from one long-term sleeping schedule to another, for instance, if you were working the night shift but will switch to a day shift moving forward, you should exclude your temperature on the first 1-2 nights to give your body some time to adjust to the change. After that, you can keep syncing your temperature as you normally would.
The effectiveness of Natural Cycles (93% with typical use and 98% with perfect use) is not impacted by days without temperature data, but you may experience more Red Days, where protection is needed, and this may reduce your satisfaction with using Natural Cycles. If that is the case, using ovulation tests can help the algorithm pinpoint your ovulation, which may improve your experience with Natural Cycles. NC° Birth Control users may receive more Green Days, while NC° Plan Pregnancy users may benefit from a more precise fertile window.
For NC° Band users
As long as you follow the guidelines above, all you need is at least four hours of total sleep for Natural Cycles to receive the temperature trend data from your NC° Band to calculate your daily fertility status (it does not have to be consecutive sleep). If you sleep less than four hours, there won’t be enough data to be collected, and you will see the message "Interrupted Sleep" below the temperature section for those specific days.
While your NC° Band collects temperature data continuously, to ensure accuracy, the app only uses temperatures that are taken between 7 PM and 10 AM. This means if you sleep outside of these hours, that specific temperature reading won't be used for your cycle analysis.
For Oura Ring users
As long as you follow the guidelines above, all you need is at least three hours of sleep for Natural Cycles to receive the temperature trend data from your Oura Ring to calculate your daily fertility status.
An important thing to note is that the Oura Ring tracks your sleep in a 24-hour window from 6 pm to 6 pm each day, otherwise known as Oura’s Sleep Day. It will record one main sleep cycle (which needs to be a minimum of three hours) and show the longest sleep period that has taken place for each Oura Sleep Day. If you sleep during the day past 6 pm, the sleep and temperature trend data will be attributed to the next day. For instance, if you fall asleep at noon on January 1 and wake up at 8 pm on January 1, then the sleep and temperature data will be attributed to January 2. You can read more about Oura’s Sleep Day here: Nap Detection.
For Apple Watch users
As long as you follow the guidelines above, all you need is at least four hours of sleep for Natural Cycles to receive the temperature data from your Apple Watch to calculate your daily fertility status.
An important thing to remember is that your wrist temperature is only collected when you have Sleep Focus ON for more than 4 hours during your sleep. You can set up a personalized Sleep Schedule so that Sleep Focus turns itself on automatically each day, or you can manage Sleep Focus manually each day as you wake up or go to bed. To learn more, please see this article: How to sync the Apple Watch to Natural Cycles.