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The sleep tracking applications of smartphones make people so anxious and obsessed with their sleep that they develop insomnia, said a neurologist.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival, sleep disorders specialist Dr. Guy Leschziner, a consultant at London's Guy's Hospital, said growing concern over getting enough sleep was turning against him.
"We have seen many people who have developed significant insomnia as a result of sleep trackers or some readings on the fact that sleep deprivation is devastating for you," Leschziner said before his presentation.
A high proportion of patients seeking treatment for insomnia presents at his clinic with data on their sleep patterns and is often reluctant to suppress the application, he said. "It's pretty hard to dissuade them from using it."
Most applications have not been validated clinically and are only following the movements. Do not give a glimpse of the quality of sleep, he added.
"My point of view on sleep monitoring is pretty cynical. If you feel tired on awakening and have a restful night's sleep, you'll know you have a problem, "he said. "If you wake up every day and feel refreshed, if you are awake all day and you are ready to sleep at the same time each night, you probably sleep enough and you do not need to sleep. 39, an application to tell you. "
Similar concerns have been highlighted in a series of case studies published last year by a Chicago team that described patients whose sleep micromanagement with the help of applications had led to a disorder called orthosomnia.
Research shows that for most people, the optimal sleep time is about eight hours, but that varies greatly from one population to the next. For people who naturally need less sleep, being alerted to the fact that they do not sleep enough could result in a nocebo effect, expecting negative symptoms leading to worsening of sleep. State of health.
Stephanie Romiszewski, a sleep psychologist based in Exeter, said in one session: "Everyone sleeps differently and can have a different duration. And so if you take a generic sleep tracker and [says] you have not slept enough, this can worry you. "
However, some cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) applications have been shown to be effective in treating insomnia during trials.
It has been said at the festival that people should also take a relaxed approach to getting advice on caffeine consumption and exposure to blue light before bedtime. "Caffeine is only applicable if caffeine disrupts your sleep," Leschziner said. "There are genes that influence how your brain processes caffeine, so there are many people who drink two or three cups of espresso before going to bed without having any impact on their sleep."
Genetics also influences the extent to which blue light disrupts the evening peak in the sleep hormone, melatonin. "If your sleep is really good and you can sit and watch Netflix until 11 o'clock in the evening, shut down your computer, let yourself go to sleep, and get a good night's sleep, then you can not sleep. Do not have to worry about it. , "he said." We know that sensitivity to blue light varies enormously. "
Leshchziner said that sleep measurement fits into a more general trend to "metrify our lives" by using technology to account for the number of steps we have made, the number of friends online that we have and how we spend our money. With sleep, this trend is particularly problematic, he said. "If you measure your steps and realize that you are not walking as far as you should, you simply need to do a little more exercise. When you enter this obsessive state of sleep, it makes sleep even more difficult. "
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