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Do sleep important for health and well-beingand not getting enough sleep can affect our productivity and mood, and increase our risk of health problems such as cardiovascular disease.
So it’s not surprising that sleep tracking has exploded in popularity in recent years, as widely accessible wearable devices like Fitbits, Oura Rings, and smartwatches promise insights into our nighttime sleep.
But are they useful for understanding and improving sleep, or can they potentially harm our sleep?
The answer is both: when used correctly, they can help us manage our sleep patterns, but for some they can increase sleep anxiety or lead to sleep disorders. orthosomniawhich is an unhealthy obsession with achieving the ‘perfect’ sleep score.
Sleep trackers rely primarily on data from motion sensors called accelerometers to figure out whether someone is awake or asleep. If you don’t move, the device thinks you’re asleep, and if you move, the device thinks you’re awake.
Some newer devices also use your heart rate to infer different stages of sleep, such as deep sleep and sleep REM (rapid eye movement) sleep..
This differs greatly from the scientific gold standard sleep study instrumentknown as polysomnography – or PSG for short.
PSG measures your brain waves, muscle activity, eye movements and heart rate. Additional recordings are often also made to record breathing, oxygen levels, chest and abdominal movements, leg movements, body position and even snoring.
PSG sleep studies document very rich and comprehensive sleep data that can be used to diagnose sleep disorders obstructive sleep apnea.
However, PSG sleep studies often require an overnight stay in one sleep laboratoryand can be expensive, requiring a referral from a GP or sleep doctor. They also report only one night’s sleep – which is not necessarily representative of a person’s typical sleep at home.
Sleep trackers, on the other hand, are accessible and relatively cheap. You can wear them every night so you can record your sleep patterns over time.
But these trackers make assumptions that can lead to errors and are generally not suitable for diagnosing sleep disorders.
A recent comprehensive overview of sleep wearables found that consumer-grade sleep trackers vary widely in their ability to accurately detect sleep stages, especially deep sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.
Some devices even only achieve 50 to 70 percent agreement with the sleep phases measured by PSG.
Sleep trackers tend to overestimate total sleep time and underestimate wakefulness after falling asleep. For example, in some cases, wearables may incorrectly identify wakefulness as light sleep, especially if you lie still.
Our work found that sleep trackers do not yet have sufficient agreement with the gold standard for sleep measurements to replace clinical sleep assessment and sleep studies.
Sleep trackers are best used to provide a general idea of how much sleep you get on average over time, rather than a precise breakdown of sleep stages.
Many people skimp on sleep to extend their work hours, spend time socializing or relaxing, or get up early to go to the gym.
For good sleepers without significant sleep complaints, sleep trackers can be useful to monitor whether this is the case getting enough sleep, which averages seven to nine hours per night for adults.
They can serve as a tool for establishing a more consistent sleep schedule or noticing patterns in lifestyle factors, such as exercise or stress. For example, a generally good sleeper may find it helpful to see how habits such as regular exercise affect their sleep.
But unfortunately, the accuracy of sleep trackers tends to decrease for people with sleep problems, and sleep trackers can even hinder rather than help them sleep.
People with insomnia often have disturbed sleep and increased movement during sleep, which these devices can misinterpret as lighter stages of sleep or wakefulness, respectively.
This means that sleep trackers can report that you are sleeping less than you actually do. This can increase stress and worry about sleep – which can of course make it harder to sleep.
If you lie awake but very still in bed, a sleep tracker may overestimate your total sleep time.
Tracking sleep via a wearable device can also sometimes lead to a new sleep phenomenon called orthosomnia.
Orthosomnia, or the obsession with obtaining “perfect” sleep data, was first reported by researchers from Chicago in 2017. It refers to a person who becomes fixated on sleep tracker metrics, interpreting small deviations as indicators of sleep problems.
This can lead to sleep-related anxiety, which ironically worsens sleep. When hyper-focused on our sleep tracker data, some people may spend an excessive amount of time in bed to achieve a certain ‘score’, or may experience increased anxiety about their sleep quality.
This can worsen sleep and insomnia symptoms.
Just as obsessing over our body weight by checking the scale every day won’t help us lose weight, obsessing over our sleep tracker data won’t actually improve our sleep problems.
And it’s important to consider how sleep tracking data affects our perception of sleep quality.
In one Study from 2018participants with insomnia were given fake sleep tracker feedback. Those who were told they slept poorly reported reduced daytime functioning, along with increased sleepiness and fatigue, compared to those who were told they slept well, regardless of how they actually slept.
If you’re having trouble with it insomnia (trouble falling asleep or staying asleep despite adequate sleep time), be sure to seek professional health care from a primary care physician, sleep doctor, or sleep psychologist, and talk to them about evidence-based treatments such as Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).
CBT-I is one of the most effective treatments for managing and improving insomnia symptoms, with techniques that address sleep-related anxiety, improve your sleep drive, and regulate your circadian rhythms.
View the Insomnia fact sheet from the Sleep Health Foundation for more information about insomnia and effective treatment options. The Sleep Health Foundation has links to free and effective online CBT-I programs such as This is how to deal with insomnia.
And if your sleep tracking score is good, but you still feeling tired or sleepy during the dayyou may have a higher need for sleep. Try to get nine to ten hours of sleep and then compare how you feel during the day.
Or you could have a sleep disorder like Obstructive sleep apnea or Restless leg syndrome that may disrupt your sleep quality, or Hypersomniamaking you feel sleepy and tired no matter how much sleep you get.
Instead of obsessing over daily scores, also consider your personal perception of sleep: let how you feel throughout the day be your guide, even if the data points to a poor night’s sleep.
Ask yourself: Am I tired or sleepy all day? Do I feel good, physically and mentally? Do I need a lot of caffeine to get through the day?
Don’t try to judge how well you slept based on how you feel right after you wake up, because many of us feel groggy or suffer from sleep inertia for a few hours.
Sleep is important and sleep tracking has become a popular way to gain insight into our sleep. When used as a general guide, sleep trackers can be very helpful in establishing good sleep-wake routines and focusing on your health and well-being.
But if you’re concerned about your sleep or still feel sleepy despite good sleep tracking data, it may be time to stop tracking and see a healthcare provider such as a sleep doctor or sleep psychologist to get your sleep monitored.
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