Can a Sleep Tracker Make Your Sleep Worse? Orthosomnia Explained

Sleep trackers promised to help us understand our nights. For many people they do. But some wake up, check a score of 62, and feel their whole day has already gone wrong. When the data starts to cause the worry, the tracker may be costing more sleep than it saves.

This article explains orthosomnia, what research says about how common it is, why sleep data can backfire, and a calmer way to use, or pause, your tracker.

Can a sleep tracker make your sleep worse?

For some people, yes. In 2017, sleep clinicians described a group of patients who came for help with sleep problems they had largely identified through their trackers, such as "too little deep sleep" or restless nights. These patients often trusted the tracker more than validated sleep tests, and their pursuit of perfect numbers had become a source of stress. The clinicians named this orthosomnia, from the idea of "correct" sleep (Baron et al., 2017).

It is not that trackers are bad. It is that sleep responds poorly to pressure, and a score adds pressure.

How common is orthosomnia?

Research is still early. In a 2024 survey of 523 adults, 35.8% regularly used a sleep-tracking device. Using combinations of tracker use, insomnia symptoms and sleep-related worry, the authors estimated that 3.0% to 14.0% of the sample met their criteria for orthosomnia, depending on how strict the cut-off was (Jahrami et al., 2024).

Researchers have now built a questionnaire to measure it. In development studies with nearly 1,500 adults, orthosomnia was linked with more sleep effort, unhelpful beliefs about sleep, perfectionism and health anxiety (Guldbrandsen et al., 2025).

Why sleep data can backfire

Two things happen. First, the data is less certain than it looks. Consumer devices estimate sleep from movement and heart rate, and they are less reliable at sorting sleep into stages than a lab sleep study. A precise-looking "deep sleep: 47 minutes" can carry more confidence than it deserves.

Second, monitoring itself creates worry. In experiments, simply watching a clock while trying to sleep raised worry and delayed sleep in good and poor sleepers alike (Tang et al., 2007). A tracker can become a clock that also grades you.

A calmer approach

1. Ask what the tracker is for. If it helps you keep a regular bedtime, it is doing its job. If it mostly makes you anxious, it is not.
2. Hide the score for two weeks. Turn off the morning summary or keep the app off your home screen.
3. Judge your sleep by your day. Each morning, rate how rested you feel from 1 to 5 before looking at anything.
4. Swap the data check for a bedtime breath. Ten minutes of breathing in for 4 seconds and out for 6, with no device to check.
5. If you return to the data, look weekly, not daily. Trends are more meaningful than any single night.
6. Take the watch off at night if wearing it reminds you that you are being measured.
7. Beginner fallback. If you feel uneasy without it, keep wearing it but do not open the app until the weekend.

When tracker data is worth acting on

Trackers can sometimes flag something worth checking. Talk to a doctor if you notice, together with how you feel:

• Very loud snoring or reports of pauses in breathing.
• Strong daytime sleepiness despite enough time in bed.
• Trouble sleeping on most nights for months.

The tracker cannot diagnose these. A clinician can.

Questions to ask yourself about your tracker

A quick check can tell you whether your tracker is helping or hurting:

• Do I feel worse after seeing a low score, even when I felt fine before looking?
• Do I change my plans for the day based on the number?
• Do I check the data during the night or first thing in the morning?
• Do I trust the tracker more than how I feel?
• Have I started worrying about sleep stages I had never thought about before?

If you answered yes to two or more, a two-week break from the data is a sensible experiment. Notice whether your mornings feel any different.

Using a tracker in a healthy way

Trackers can still be useful. They can remind you to go to bed on time, show long-term patterns such as later bedtimes on weekends, and give you something concrete to bring to a doctor if you have ongoing concerns. The healthiest approach is to use them as a rough guide to habits, look at weekly trends, and let your own sense of how rested you feel have the final word.

What the research shows

• Clinical case series: patients' focus on tracker data became a perfectionistic quest that added to their sleep concerns (Baron et al., 2017).
• 523 adults: 35.8% used sleep trackers; 3.0% to 14.0% met orthosomnia criteria depending on the threshold (Jahrami et al., 2024).
• Scale development with nearly 1,500 adults: orthosomnia was linked with sleep effort, unhelpful sleep beliefs, perfectionism and health anxiety (Guldbrandsen et al., 2025).
• Clock monitoring experiments: watching the time while trying to sleep raised worry and delayed sleep (Tang et al., 2007).

The takeaway: a tracker is a tool, not a judge. If it adds worry, a break is a sensible experiment. The research on orthosomnia is new, so expect the picture to keep developing.

Common mistakes

• Checking the score first thing every morning. It can set the mood for the whole day.
• Changing your routine every night based on one score. Look at trends.
• Trusting stage estimates too much. Deep and REM sleep figures from wearables are rough.
• Using the tracker instead of seeing a doctor. It can raise a question, not answer it.

Who should be careful

• People with insomnia or high sleep anxiety: trackers may increase worry. Consider pausing them, and ask about cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.
• People with health anxiety or perfectionism: be extra cautious about daily sleep scores.
• People who snore loudly, wake gasping or are very sleepy in the day: see a doctor for proper testing. A tracker is not a diagnosis.
• Anyone who feels dizzy during breathing: stop and breathe normally.