Data or dreamland? The dangers of sleep-tracking software and wearables
Pic: iStock
We fetishise sleep, surrounded by devices that claim to enhance our slumber.
For a starting price of €70, watches and rings track our sleep.
If we’ve got €600 to spare, smart mattresses promise to change the temperature to match our sleep cycles.
Sleep robots, a steal at €150, encourage us to slow our breathing, helping us to sleep deeper.
Sleep is a hot topic online, too, with TikTok influencers racking up thousands of views with posts about #sleepmaxxing, in which they share the steps they take to improve their sleep.
One couple I know even practise competitive snoozing. Their morning routine starts with rolling over to check their scores and compare who slept best.
He usually scores higher than she does, hitting the 90s while she languishes in the low 60s.
This is even though she takes magnesium supplements, sleeps under a weighted blanket, and has been known to spray her pillow with aromatherapy sleep mist.
Meanwhile, all he has to do is close his eyes and fall asleep.
Prof Andrew Coogan, director of the chronobiology and sleep research laboratory at Maynooth University, is not surprised by our preoccupation with sleep.
“We are beginning to understand sleep as one of the three pillars of physical and psychological health, alongside diet and exercise,” Prof Coogan says.
“We have yet to come across an animal that doesn’t sleep, which leads us to believe it’s fundamental to life.”
Dr Dimitri Gavriloff, a research clinical psychologist at the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford, explains how sleep is central to many bodily functions.
“We only have to look at what happens when we’re sleep-deprived,” he says.
“If we don’t get enough sleep, we are affected across the board.
This means, cognitively, in terms of decision-making, learning, and creativity; and, physiologically, in terms of the function of systems, such as the thermoregulatory, cardiovascular, endocrine, metabolic, and immune systems. Put simply, sleep is vital.”
Prof Russell Foster, director of the University of Oxford institute, says the research on the need for sleep could not be clearer.
“Studies show that not getting enough sleep increases the risk of hypertension, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cancer,” he says.
Research shows that lack of sleep can also affect our mood, with a 2015 US study finding that tired brains tend to remember negative experiences rather than positive ones.
“In that way, a lack of sleep can bias our whole worldview,” says Prof Foster.
He also refers to studies proving that it’s harder to come up with creative solutions to problems when we’re tired, which may be why we often advise those wrestling with a problem to sleep on it before deciding what to do.
Prof Foster says: “Studies consistently show that people are better problem solvers after a night’s sleep, suggesting that it’s during sleep that our brains process the information we are bombarded with during the day.”
He has explored the influence of sleep on mental illness and dementia.
“There is no question that sleep contributes to every aspect of our ability to function,” he says.
“From its effect on our weight to our social interactions and cognitive performance, it defines the quality of our lives.”
Despite our awareness of sleep’s importance and the ubiquity of sleep aids, many people aren’t getting as much as they would like.
A 2019 Department of Health report revealed that 56% of Irish adults got less than seven hours of sleep a night.
Prof Coogan wonders if our preoccupation with tracking, analysing, and enhancing our sleep could be counterproductive.
“Orthosomnia is the term given to the idea that over-monitoring sleep actually provokes sleep-related anxiety and causes us to be bad sleepers,” he says.
“Good sleepers don’t tend to think about sleep a lot. Bad sleepers, by contrast, tend to think about it to an unhelpful degree.”
He questions if devices are likely to be of benefit to bad sleepers.
“A fitness tracker helps me meet my fitness goals because I can control whether or not I exercise,” he says.
“But sleep doesn’t work like this. I can’t make myself sleep better. Trying to do so may actually make me sleep worse.”
Mr Gavriloff carried out a thought-provoking study on sleep trackers in 2018, when they were a relatively new phenomenon.
He gave trackers to poor sleepers and told them he would monitor how their sleep the night before affected their performance during the day.
He then gave them a score from their tracker every morning and checked in throughout the day to record their feelings. Those with the lowest scores felt sleepier and less alert and experienced lower mood and impaired function.
No surprises there, except there was a catch. The sleep scores the participants received weren’t real: They were generated randomly.
“Yet, they affected how people felt and functioned during the day,” says Mr Gavriloff.
Prof Coogan sees this as proof that tracking devices simply give poor sleepers another thing to fixate upon.
“Everything we understand about the psychology of sleep tells us that what’s most unhelpful is to obsess about it,” he says. “Trackers feed this obsession.”
He also questions trackers’ reliability.
“They are reasonably good at telling you how long you slept,” he says. “But I doubt the validity of their REM sleep scores.”
Trackers are also based on what Prof Foster sees as the false premise that we should all get eight hours of sleep a night.
“Sleep needs vary from person to person and over a lifespan,” he says.
“Taking the population average of eight hours and applying it to everyone is nonsense, just as it would be if we told everyone to wear the same average-sized shoe. Some of us get by perfectly well on six hours, while others need closer to 11.”
Trackers are too crude, he says, in applying a single algorithm to diverse sleep patterns. But future iterations may be more helpful.
“Advancements in AI will allow for people’s data to be fed back in to the system, creating a much more insightful feedback loop,” he says.
“Until that happens, I wouldn’t take trackers too seriously. Besides, you don’t need a tracker to tell you you’re not getting enough sleep. Your body will do that for you.”
Another simple indication of sleep deprivation, says Prof Foster, is noticing you’re oversleeping on days off or need an alarm clock to wake up.
“You might be relying on caffeinated or sugary drinks to get through the day. Or you might be moody or irritable or making stupid mistakes. All are signs that you need more sleep.”
Life often conspires against us getting those extra 40 winks. “One of the main things that keeps us awake at night is rumination,” says Prof Coogan.
“From thoughts of work and finances to all the things you have to get ready for Christmas, turning things over in our minds raises our levels of alertness, which makes it harder to fall asleep and increases our chances of waking up even if we do nod off.”
Gender also plays a role. Studies in Britain and the US in 2017 show that women are 40% more likely to sleep poorly than men.
Prof Coogan outlines the possible reasons: “Women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and sleep disturbances are common with these mental-health disorders,” he says.
“The menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and menopause play havoc with women’s sleep, too, as does being the primary caregiver for small children.”
Simple strategies can help develop healthy sleeping habits, Mr Gavriloff says. One is a good sleep routine that involves getting up and going to bed at the same time every day.
Another is recognising the limitations of tossing and turning. “If you can’t sleep, give up the struggle and do something relaxing, like reading a book or watching TV. Just not the news,” he says. “Sleepiness will come eventually.”
Getting outside in the mornings and early afternoons is a good tactic, reinforcing our body’s circadian rhythm. In the pre-modern era, when we spent more time outside, that rhythm would have been more closely aligned with the sun and darkness would have triggered sleepiness.
“But we now spend more time inside in houses and offices, where lights are kept on long into the night,” says Mr Gavriloff. “Time spent outside helps to counter the effects of this.”
What is more impactful than any modern sleep aid is our mental attitude to sleep, according to Prof Foster. “We need to relax,” he says. “If we could appreciate the sleep we get rather than fretting over the sleep we don’t, we’d all sleep much more soundly.”
Studies show that regularly getting a good night’s sleep is likely to make us happier and healthier. Other than panicking, what can those prone to tossing and turning in bed do to catch those elusive forty winks?
If you tend to mull things over at night, Prof Andrew Coogan recommends writing down your worries before bed. “Get them out of your system by writing them on a piece of paper,” he says. “Then fold the paper and put it away, telling yourself you won’t think about it until morning.”
He also advises emulating actor Orlando Bloom and prioritising sleep. “When I was young, come 11.30 at night, the test card came up on the telly and the national anthem was played,” he says. “We all went to bed because there was nothing else to do. Now, there’s so much to do that it can eat into our sleep time. We need to make an active decision to go to bed at a time that gives us a sufficient window to get the amount of sleep we need.”
Prof Russell Foster suggests doing as Jennifer Aniston does and actively de-stressing before bedtime. “Anxiety and stress are the enemies of sleep,” he says. “A big problem nowadays is that couples often only get to talk about stuff when they lie in bed together at the end of the day. I’ve had to ban discussions of finances and other anxiety-inducing stuff from my bedroom. Instead, it’s much better to make your bedroom a haven for sleep by listening to music, practising mindfulness or doing whatever it is that helps you relax.”
He also urges us not to catastrophise if we wake during the night. “So many of us think that’s it, there’s no going back to sleep and we may as well get up,” he says.
“But we don’t all sleep in a single block. If we remain calm and relaxed, we’ll probably fall asleep again. We need to be more flexible in our approach to sleep.”
Finally, if you have ongoing issues with your sleep, whereby you struggle to fall or stay asleep or wake up feeling unrefreshed in the morning, talk to your GP.
“There are sleep problems that you simply won’t be able to hack your way out of,” says Prof Coogan.
