![]() ” Just as anorexics become unhealthily fixated on their eating habits, orthosomniacs develop an obsession around their sleep. Researchers from Rush University are calling this phenomenon “ orthorexia. People become obsessed with achieving “correct sleep,” technically known as “orthosomnia.” When you consider the likelihood that the device is not even fully accurate in regards to measuring your sleep, this opportunity for “clock-watching syndrome” is a real problem. For some people, once they start monitoring their sleep, they become more prone to overanalyzing it, worrying that they are not sleeping enough or that they’re sleeping too much. However, that extra attention can come with extra anxiety. ![]() Sleep tracking helps you pay better attention to your sleep health. Because the tracking in these devices is often automatic, there’s less chance for human error or forgetfulness. While the claims of identifying different sleep stages are unsubstantiated, sleep tracking can certainly help you get a better idea of how much sleep you’re getting. While the 2015 study cited above found a Jawbone to be good at measuring total awake time, a study of a Fitbit Ultra found that it over- or underestimated sleep, depending on the individual user, and yet another study of Fitbit found that it overestimated sleep time for all participants. There’s large variability among what different devices view as awake vs. The other issue with the reliability of sleep tracking devices is just that – they’re not reliable. ![]() It’s just that it doesn’t provide the full picture. It’s not that accelerometry is inaccurate. In a sleep lab, sleep technicians will look at your brainwaves, along with other vital functions, such as your breathing, heart rate, body and eye movement, and oxygen levels, to monitor your sleep and diagnose a sleep disorder. The best way to distinguish between the various stages of sleep is by observing your brainwaves, not movement. We also naturally move some during sleep, shifting positions a few times during the night to avoid our muscles from going numb. For example, our bodies are paralyzed during REM sleep (in order to prevent us from acting out our dreams), but we may twitch and confuse especially sensitive trackers into thinking we’re awake when we’re deep asleep. Our bodies make similar movements in light and deep sleep. Things start to get fuzzy when sleep trackers claim to distinguish between the stages of sleep. A 2015 study favorably compared the Jawbone UP with polysomnography, for instance. Several studies have shown sleep trackers are fairly accurate when it comes to measuring your total wake time. The distinction in movement between sleep and wake is pretty clear. Unfortunately, time and again, studies show that there is “a critical absence of supporting evidence for the advertised functions and benefits in the majority of the devices.” What does the science have to say? What the science says about sleep tracking When you wake up in the morning and move around, your accelerometer senses that and knows that you’re awake. If you stop moving, it’s likely you’re asleep. How are these devices able to share the information they claim? Sleep trackers use the accelerometer in your smartphone, smartwatch, or wearable device. Then, when you wake up in the morning, you take a look at the tracker to see what helpful information it has to reveal. If the sleep tracking is part of your personal fitness tracker, you simply keep wearing that device as normal when you go to bed. If you’re using a sleep tracking app, you let the phone sleep by you in bed. Some sleep trackers also offer listening capabilities, monitoring your sleep for sounds of snoring or sleep apnea, and some claim to tell you how much time you spent in various stages of sleep, light or deep. whether you woke up during the night at all). In their most basic form, sleep trackers tell you two things: how long you’ve slept and the quality of your sleep (i.e. You can find them as standalone sleep tracking smartphone apps, or as one of the features included in your fitness tracker or smartwatch. Sleep trackers help you track your sleep. Ultimately, whether or not sleep tracking is bad for your health depends on how you use these devices. Is that true, or is it possible sleep tracking is actually bad for us? The marketing tells us sleep trackers help us monitor our sleep. From fitness trackers to smart speakers, the Internet of Things has permeated all aspects of our lives – including our sleep.
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