Data or dreamland? The dangers of sleep tracking software and wearables

If you have €600 to spare, a smart mattress promises to change the temperature to match your sleep cycle.

The Sleep Robot is a bargain at €150 and helps us sleep more deeply by encouraging us to slow down our breathing.

Sleep is also a hot topic online, with TikTok influencers racking up thousands of views on #sleepmaxxing posts sharing the steps they're taking to improve their sleep.

Some couples I know practice competitive snoozing. Their morning routine begins with rolling over, checking their scores, and comparing who slept better.

He usually scores higher than her, reaching the 90s, while she languishes in the low 60s.

This is despite the fact that she is known to take magnesium supplements, sleep under weighted blankets, and spray her pillow with aromatherapy sleep mist.

During that time, all he has to do is close his eyes and fall asleep.

Professor Andrew Coogan, director of the Chronobiology and Sleep Laboratory at Maynooth University, is not surprised that we are obsessed with sleep.

“We are beginning to understand that sleep is one of the three pillars of physical and psychological health, along with diet and exercise,” says Professor Coogan.

“We believe that sleep is fundamental to life because we have yet to meet an animal that does not sleep.”

Dr Dimitri Gavrilov, a research clinical psychologist at the Institute of Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, explains how sleep is central to many bodily functions.

“You just have to look at what happens when you're sleep deprived,” he says.

“When we don't get enough sleep, we are affected in general.

Cognitively, this means in terms of decision-making, learning, and creativity. And physiologically, in terms of the functioning of systems such as the thermoregulatory, cardiovascular, endocrine, metabolic, and immune systems. Simply put, sleep is extremely important. ”

Health effects

Professor Russell Foster, director of the University of Oxford Research Institute, says research on the need for sleep has never been more clear-cut.

“Research shows that not getting enough sleep increases your risk of high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and cancer,” he says.

Research shows that sleep deprivation can also affect mood, with a 2015 US study finding that tired brains tend to remember negative experiences more than positive ones.

“Sleep deprivation can thus bias our entire worldview,” Professor Foster says.

He also points to research that has shown that when you're tired, it's harder to come up with creative solutions to problems, which makes it difficult for people working on problems to do anything. This may be why people often advise people to go to bed before making a decision.

Professor Foster said: “Studies consistently show that problem-solving skills improve after a full night's sleep, suggesting that it is during sleep that the brain processes information that is bombarded with it during the day. Masu.”

He has researched the effects of sleep on mental illness and dementia.

“There's no question that sleep contributes to every aspect of our ability to function,” he says.

“From its impact on weight to social interactions and cognitive abilities, it defines our quality of life.”

vicious circle

Despite recognition of the importance of sleep and the prevalence of sleep aids, many people don't get as much sleep as they would like.

A 2019 Department of Health report found that 56% of Irish adults slept less than seven hours a night.

Professor Coogan believes that our obsession with tracking, analyzing and enhancing our sleep may be counterproductive.

“Orthosomnia is the term given to the idea that over-monitoring your sleep can actually cause sleep-related anxiety, leading to poorer sleep,” he says.

“Good sleepers tend not to think much about their sleep. In contrast, poor sleepers tend to think about it to an unhelpful degree.”

He questions whether the device is beneficial for people who have trouble sleeping.

“Fitness trackers can help you reach your fitness goals by giving you control over whether you exercise or not,” he says.

“But sleep doesn't work this way. You won't sleep well. If you try, you might end up sleeping worse.”

Gavrilov conducted thought-provoking research on sleep trackers in 2018, when they were a relatively new phenomenon.

He said he would give trackers to people with poor sleep quality and monitor how the previous night's sleep affected their performance during the day.

We then gave them a score from the tracker every morning and checked in throughout the day to record their emotions. Those who scored the lowest felt sleepier, less alert, had a lower mood, and felt less functional.

There was nothing surprising about it, except for the pitfalls. The sleep scores participants received were not real, but randomly generated.

“Yet, they influenced how people felt about their day and what they did,” Gavrilov said.

Professor Coogan sees this as evidence that tracking devices are simply giving light sleepers something else to fixate on.

“Everything we understand about the psychology of sleep is that the most unhelpful thing is to obsess over sleep,” he says. “The tracker feeds on this obsession.”

He also has doubts about the tracker's reliability.

“They're pretty good at telling you how long they slept,” he says. “However, the validity of their REM sleep scores is questionable.”

Trackers are also based on Professor Foster's incorrect premise that we should get eight hours of sleep a night.

“The amount of sleep you need varies from person to person and varies throughout your life,” he says.

“Acing everyone to a population average of 8 hours is as nonsense as forcing everyone to wear the same average shoe size. For some of us, 6 hours is perfect. But some people need closer to 11 hours.”

He says trackers are too crude in terms of applying a single algorithm to diverse sleep patterns. However, it may be more useful in future iterations.

“Advances in AI will allow us to feed people's data back into the system, creating more insightful feedback loops,” he says.

“Until that happens, I'm not going to take my trackers too seriously. Plus, you don't need a tracker to tell you you're not getting enough sleep. Your body will do it for you.”

According to Professor Foster, another easy sign of sleep deprivation is finding yourself oversleeping on holidays or needing an alarm clock to wake you up.

“You may rely on caffeinated or sugary drinks to get through the day, or you may feel grumpy and irritable or make stupid mistakes. It's a sign that you need more sleep.”

Turning over

Life often conspires to keep us from getting those extra 40 winks. “One of the main things that keeps us up at night is rumination,” says Professor Coogan.

“If you're thinking about things over and over again, whether it's work, money, or having to prepare for Christmas, your alertness levels will increase, making it harder to fall asleep and making you more likely to wake up even if you nod off. 'off'. “

Gender also plays a role. A 2017 UK and US study showed that women are 40% more likely to be sleep deprived than men.

Professor Coogan outlines possible reasons. “Women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and sleep disorders are common with these mental health disorders,” he says.

“The menstrual cycle, pregnancy and menopause also have a huge impact on a woman's sleep, as does being the primary caregiver for young children.”

Gavrilov says simple strategies can help you develop healthy sleep habits. One is good sleep habits, like waking up and going to bed at the same time every day.

The other thing is to be aware of your limits when it comes to tossing and turning. “If you can't sleep, stop struggling and do something relaxing like reading a book or watching TV. Just not the news,” he says. “Drowsiness will come eventually.”

Getting outside in the morning and early afternoon is a good way to strengthen your body's circadian rhythm. In pre-modern times, when people spent more time outside, their rhythms were more aligned with sunlight, and darkness would have caused sleepiness.

“But now we are spending more time indoors, with lights on in our homes and offices until late at night,” Gavrilov said. “Spending time outdoors can help counteract this effect.”

According to Professor Foster, even more influential than modern sleep aids is our mental attitude towards sleep. “I need to relax,” he says. “We could all sleep better if we could be grateful for the sleep we get instead of worrying about not being able to sleep.”

40 winks

Research shows that when we get regular quality sleep, we're more likely to be happier and healthier. What can someone who tends to toss and turn in bed do other than panic in order to catch that elusive 40 winks?

Professor Andrew Coogan recommends writing down your worries before going to bed if you tend to think about things at night. “Put them on paper and get them out of your system,” he says. “Then fold the paper and tell yourself not to think about anything until morning.”

She also advises people to follow the example of actor Orlando Bloom and prioritize sleep. “When I was young, you would come at 11:30 at night and the test card would be played on TV and the national anthem would be playing,” he says. “We all went to bed because we didn't have anything else to do. We have so much to do right now that it eats up our sleep time. We're proactive about going to bed early enough to get the sleep we need. You have to make a decision.”

Professor Russell Foster, like Jennifer Aniston, suggests actively de-stressing before bed. “Anxiety and stress are the enemies of sleep,” he says. “A big problem today is that couples often only talk when they lie in bed together at the end of the day. Unless we ban talking about finances and other anxiety-provoking topics in the bedroom. Instead, it's much better to turn your bedroom into a haven for sleep by listening to music, practicing mindfulness, or doing anything that helps you relax.

He also recommends that waking up in the middle of the night not be a disaster. “Many of us think it's over, we can't go back to sleep, we should just wake up,” he says.

“But we don't all sleep in the same blocks. If you're calm and relaxed, you'll probably fall asleep again. We need to be more flexible in our approach to sleep.”

Finally, if you have ongoing problems with your sleep, such as having trouble falling or staying asleep or feeling unrefreshed when you wake up in the morning, talk to your doctor.

“Sleep problems are something you can't really get rid of,” says Professor Coogan.