"The Obsession with the Perfect Sleep" Ruins Nighttime Rest
The pursuit of better sleep may itself become a new source of anxiety. Doctors warn that obsessively tracking sleep hours, stages, and quality metrics can drive some individuals to become excessively preoccupied with data and numbers, leading to a condition known as “orthosomnia” or “healthy sleep disorder.” This term describes an obsession with achieving perfect sleep, according to Al Arabiya.
Several physicians have reported observing signs of this excessive preoccupation among some of their patients, who arrive at clinics laden with data collected by sleep-tracking devices, convinced they suffer from a sleep problem despite medical examinations failing to confirm such issues, according to a BBC report.
Experts caution that an excessive focus on this data may increase anxiety about sleep, potentially having a negative impact on the sleep experience itself.
The Fitbit Classic was the first commercial fitness tracker to integrate sleep analysis, launched in 2009. Since then, many other companies—including Garmin, Whoop, and Apple—have incorporated sleep tracking into wearable wrist devices, as well as smart rings such as Oura, Ultrahuman, and RingConn.
While these devices differ, they generally provide detailed reports on users’ sleep nights broken down by sleep stages, including wake time, light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Many also offer users a “sleep quality score.”
However, the concept of a sleep quality score is “completely fabricated,” according to Dr. Alana Hersh, a sleep medicine consultant at London’s Royal Brompton Hospital. She stated that there is no recognized concept in sleep science called a “sleep quality score,” considering it “merely an invention by manufacturers.”
She also noted an increase in the number of patients visiting her clinic carrying data from various tracking devices, expressing concerns about whether their results indicate a sleep problem. She explained that some of these patients underwent medical tests with reassuring results, yet this was not always enough to dispel their worries.
Hersh added that while increased attention to sleep as part of overall health is positive, she pointed out that sleep does not necessarily respond well to excessive attempts to control or optimize it.
Instead of becoming overly fixated on the numbers provided by tracking devices, Hersh recommends focusing on fundamental habits that promote healthy sleep, including:
* Creating a comfortable sleeping environment that is relatively cool, dark, and quiet, without striving for perfect conditions or specific temperature, darkness, or noise levels.
* Exposure to bright light in the morning, which helps regulate the body’s circadian rhythm, or biological clock.
* Maintaining a healthy, balanced diet, with an emphasis on diverse plant-based foods, similar to the Mediterranean diet.
