Sleep trackers are supposed to help us sleep better.
They tell us how long we've slept, how often we've woken up, how much deep sleep we've had and, in some cases, whether we've been snoring.
Useful? Absolutely.
But what happens when checking your sleep becomes something you can't switch off from?
You wake up feeling pretty good, reach for your phone and discover your sleep score wasn't quite what you expected.
Suddenly, you're questioning whether you actually slept well at all.
There's a term for becoming overly focused on getting the "perfect" sleep according to your sleep data: orthosomnia.
What is orthosomnia?
The term orthosomnia was introduced by sleep researchers to describe people becoming preoccupied with improving or perfecting their wearable sleep data.
Think of it as getting a little too caught up in trying to get the perfect night's sleep.
You check your tracker in the morning and suddenly seven hours doesn’t feel like enough. Your sleep score has dropped, you didn’t get as much deep sleep as you wanted, or apparently you woke up more than usual.
Even if you felt fine when you woke up, the numbers can quickly convince you otherwise.
So, despite feeling relatively refreshed, you start wondering what went wrong.
The irony is that putting pressure on ourselves to sleep perfectly can make it harder to relax around sleep in the first place.
Sleep isn't always a test
It’s easy to get caught up in the numbers, but there isn’t really a “perfect” sleep score to aim for.
Sleep trackers can be useful for spotting patterns and understanding your habits, but they don’t tell you everything.
Your sleep will naturally change from one night to the next. Stress, alcohol, a late dinner, travel, illness or even a change in your usual routine can all have an impact.
So, a bad score or an unusual night doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve slept badly or that something is wrong.
Rather than worrying about individual nights, look at the bigger picture. Are there patterns developing over time? And just as importantly, how do you actually feel when you wake up?
Should you stop tracking your sleep?
Not at all. Sleep tracking can be really useful for understanding your habits and spotting patterns over time. It’s just worth remembering that the data is there to help you, rather than give you something else to worry about.
Looking at your sleep across a week or a month can often tell you much more than focusing on one night. And if you wake up feeling perfectly fine, only to feel differently after seeing a low sleep score, it might be worth taking a break from checking it first thing in the morning.
What about tracking snoring?
Tracking can be particularly useful when it comes to snoring because it can help you spot patterns that you might otherwise miss.
For example, you might notice that your snoring changes after drinking alcohol, sleeping in a different position or when your usual routine changes.
At Zeus, we’ve partnered with Sleep Cycle, one of the world’s leading sleep tracking apps. Used alongside Zeus, it gives you another way to understand your sleep and keep an eye on how your snoring changes over time.
The idea is pretty simple: Sleep Cycle helps you understand your sleep. Zeus helps you do something about your snoring.
Do I need to track my sleep to use Zeus?
No. You don’t need a sleep tracker, an app or a particular sleep score to use Zeus.
Zeus is our wearable anti-snoring device for tongue and throat snorers. It sits under the chin and uses gentle electrical stimulation to support the muscles involved in snoring while you sleep.
You can simply put Zeus on as part of your usual bedtime routine and go to sleep.
If you’re someone who likes looking at sleep data, you can use an app such as Sleep Cycle alongside Zeus to see how your sleep and snoring patterns change over time. If you’re not interested in tracking your sleep, that’s absolutely fine too.
Finding a better balance with sleep data
Sleep tracking should help you understand your sleep, not leave you worrying about whether you’re doing it properly.
Rather than getting too caught up in whether you reached eight hours, got enough deep sleep or achieved a certain score, it’s worth starting with something much simpler:
How do I actually feel today?
Your sleep data can add some useful context, but it doesn’t need to be the thing that decides whether you had a good night’s sleep.
One thing to try:
Before looking at your score or seeing how much deep sleep you got, think about how you actually feel. Did you wake up feeling rested? Do you have energy? Do you feel like you slept well?
Then check the data if you want to.
You might find your own answer tells you more than you expected.
Sleep. Refreshed.
