Can’t sleep at night? Fitness trackers fuelling new sleep disorder

Rising numbers of Britons are sabotaging their sleep in a quest to improve it, experts warned today.

Trendy sleep trackers are fuelling an increase in cases of orthosomnia—an obsession with sleeping correctly, they claimed. 

Similar to the eating disorder orthorexia—an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating—the condition is said to be a product of an obsessional desire to be our healthiest, ‘best’ self.

Some of those at risk of orthosomnia already suffer from mental-health problems and sleep difficulties. 

Consumed with worry about sleeping patterns, sufferers end up with extreme anxiety and depression. 

But sleep experts say that even within the last few months they have seen more and more people who admit sleep-tracking gadgets that claim to monitor and improve our quality and quantity of sleep actually triggered their problems.

It comes as a separate survey today revealed that of those who use such devices—such as apps or watches—almost half feel like like they’ve ‘done something wrong’ if their tracker shows poor sleep. 

Concerningly, two in five reported that their device often contradicts how they feel, but they still trust the score more than their own body.

Lisa Artis, deputy CEO of the Sleep Charity, told the Daily Mail: ‘We’re seeing a rise in people treating sleep like another area to control and “perfect”.

‘For some, tracking is helpful. But for others, especially young women, it’s creating a melting pot of anxiety, pressure and this low-level feeling of failure that builds night after night.’

‘It’s like sleep has become another metric to fail at.

‘People are putting themselves under pressure to sleep well, then lying in bed overthinking their bedtime routine, their REM cycles, their supplements, their sleep score. 

‘That anxiety can be the very thing that keeps them awake.’

‘You could wake up feeling fine, but if your app gives you a low score, people are spending the day convinced they’re exhausted.

‘Sleep trackers can be useful, but only if you use them to guide your habits—not rule your mood.’

‘The hyper-focus is counter-productive. We’ve lost the basic truth that rest is about how you feel—not how you score.’

Experts have previously sounded the alarm over the devices, warning that the trackers rely on data which ‘doesn’t truly represent sleep’.

Speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival Dr Guy Leschziner, a sleep expert at the Sleep Disorders Centre in Guy’s Hospital, London, said: ‘We’ve seen a lot of people who have developed significant insomnia as a result of either sleep trackers or reading certain things about how devastating sleep deprivation is for you.

‘My view of sleep trackers is fairly cynical. If you wake up feeling tired and you’ve had an unrefreshing night’s sleep, then you know you’ve got a problem.

‘That obsessional state about sleep makes sleep even more difficult.’ 

According to a fresh survey by sleep technology company Simba, around one in nine women in the UK—roughly 4.5 million—now use a sleep or health tracking app to provide insights into their sleeping habits.

Apps, make use of motion sensors in a smartphone, which can be slipped under a pillow. 

An algorithm differentiates between movements made during deep sleep and periods of waking.

Sleep patterns are then presented on the app via diagrams that detail the minutes spent in the three sleep stages—light, deep and REM, with alerts often issued if users fail to reach the target of a specified number of nightly hours.

But according the survey, which polled 2,000 UK adults on how tracking and ‘hacking’ their sleep is affecting rest, more than a quarter (29 per cent) say they don’t feel rested despite trying to optimise their sleep. 

A quarter even admitted they feel more stressed about sleep the more they try to fix it, with Gen Z (35 per cent) most affected.

Two in five said sleep now felt like ‘another area of life we’re expected to perfect’. 

Almost half (44 per cent) reported they feel anxious about how well they’ve slept.

Of those who used sleep trackers, two in five (42 per cent) said their device often contradicts how they feel, but they still trust the score more than their own body.

Alarmingly, more than two in five (43 per cent) admit they feel like they’ve ‘done something wrong’ if their tracker shows poor sleep, rising to 80 per cent among 25–34 year olds.

Last year, a study found that around one in six Brits suffer insomnia, yet 65 per cent never seek help for their sleep problem.

Poor sleep has been linked to a number of health problems, including cancer, stroke and infertility. 

Experts have long advised that waking up during the night does not necessarily mean you have insomnia, which figures suggest affects up to 14million Brits. 

Still, sleep deprivation takes its own toll, from irritability and reduced focus in the short term, to an increased risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes. 

According to the American Sleep Association, nearly 70million Americans also have a sleep disorder.