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Comment by phames | Hacker News Reader

The thing we've wrestled most with (and haven't yet cracked) is how to accept time entry in a way that is unambiguous to even the least confident users, and also encompasses the range of quanta we need to manage (from mins to many hours). We've tried a few different solutions but 24hr dropdowns result in the least comprehension errors!!

How would you do it if you were us?

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My issue is not with your way of input, but with the question itself. My sleep patterns shift forward every single day.

I no more have a time I go to bed every night than I have a US zip code or a ten-digit cell phone number.

Understood. Fair point.

We've taken what are the clinical standard measures - and some indeed feature counterintuitive questions. And you're right, one of the main issues with 'insomnia' is an unreliable sleep pattern.

We don't want to know how you slept last night, since this may be unrepresentative; but as you say an 'average' may also not capture it/be a natural way to report it. 3 x sample points ('last 3 nights') may be longwinded. Will consider...any ideas on a better question?

Start with "do you go to bed at roughly the same time (within 1-2 hours) most nights?" and only ask the "what time" question if people say yes to the first one.

How about a visual analog round clock where people can drag the hour hand to a certain point, and choose to create a range by dragging and so extending the time slice with another hour hand.

Thanks for the suggestion - it's something we've considered; the issue with our tests to date has been getting the minute-to-minute fidelity with a circular interface (plus it's actually quite hard to drag something accurately in a circular motion). But we should revisit this all with fresh eyes - and the idea much appreciated!

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