From healthcare.utah.edu
It’s nearly midnight, and you’re still wide awake. You glance once again at last night’s low sleep score and feel your body snap into higher alert. At this rate, how will you ever beat last week’s high sleep score?
If you’re losing sleep over your sleep data, you may be experiencing orthosomnia, a term coined by Kelly Baron, PhD, professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at University of Utah Health.
Baron and her research team at U of U Health have been observing the behaviour pattern for years as sleep-tracking wearables have surged in popularity.
What Is Orthosomnia?
Orthosomnia is an unhealthy preoccupation with achieving “perfect” sleep scores.
While sleep trackers can help you learn about your sleep habits, checking sleep data can become a source of stress.
Nearly half of adults have used a wearable device to monitor their sleep quality and duration, creating a growing trend of sleep optimization.
“It seems to be a mix of perfectionism and sleep‑related anxiety,” Baron says. “The trouble is that the more anxious you become about getting ‘perfect’ sleep, the harder it is to actually sleep. And when you start trying to tightly control every aspect of your sleep, it often backfires, making the whole experience even more difficult.”
To better understand the pattern, Baron and her research team developed the Bergen Orthosomnia Scale, the first validated tool to measure orthosomnia.
The tool identifies two common patterns:
- Interference: Worrying about sleep affects daily life, relationships, or social plans.
- Rigidity: Following strict sleep rules, such as believing you can’t function without exactly seven hours of sleep, with little room for changes in your routine.
These patterns often overlap with sleep anxiety and sometimes insomnia, but orthosomnia is its own distinct pattern.
Signs Your Sleep Tracker May Be Causing Stress
Tracking your sleep shouldn’t make you feel worse about it. Some warning signs of orthosomnia include:
- Feeling anxious when checking sleep data
- Letting a low sleep score affect your mood
- Skipping social events to achieve a high sleep score
- Obsessing over sleep stages or awakenings
Who Is More Likely to Experience Orthosomnia?
Anyone who tracks their sleep can develop unhealthy habits around sleep data. But some people may be more likely to experience orthosomnia, including those who:
- Already have trouble sleeping, especially people with insomnia
- Enjoy optimization, biohacking, or performance metrics
- Set high standards for themselves
- Feel competitive about their health data
How Accurate Are Sleep Trackers?
Sleep trackers can offer useful information, but they don’t tell the whole story.
Although trackers have become more advanced over the years, they still aren’t entirely reliable.
For example:
- Trackers often underestimate sleep by about 15%, making people believe they slept worse than they actually did.
- Sleep stages are frequently misinterpreted, especially “light sleep,” which is normal and makes up roughly half the night.
- Nightly scores don’t provide a clear picture of overall sleep patterns, causing more stress and sleepless nights.
Five Ways to Stop Stressing About Your Sleep Score
If checking your sleep tracker is creating more stress and sleepless nights, changing how you use it may help.
- Take a break from tracking. Put your device aside for two weeks or longer to see whether your sleep worries improve.
- Focus on how you feel. Pay attention to your energy, mood, and ability to get through the day instead of the metrics on your watch.
- Check your data less often. Review your sleep data after one to two weeks—not every night.
- Consider sleep therapy. If anxiety or insomnia persists, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) may help.
- Ask for help when you need it. Talk with a clinician if you’re unsure whether you have a true sleep disorder.
https://healthcare.utah.edu/healthfeed/2026/10/orthosomnia-when-sleep-tracking-makes-it-harder-sleep
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