Sleep tracking apps promise better rest through data. But what happens when the pursuit of a perfect score keeps you up at night? For a growing number of people, that Apple Watch, Oura Ring, or whatever device meant to improve your sleep quality may be doing just the opposite. Here’s what to know about how sleep scores really work, and what you can do to make the most of your sleep tracker.
The benefits (and accuracy) of sleep tracking
For decades, however, people had a surprisingly poor grasp on how much they were actually sleeping. Self-reporting is notoriously unreliable; we tend to round up, conflate time in bed with time asleep, and forget our nighttime wake-ups entirely. “Consumer sleep tracking has begun to close that gap with significantly increased precision and accuracy in recent years, providing more insights from home," Robbins says. The Oura Ring and Whoop band dominate the scene, but watches like Fitbit or Apple Watch work too.
Oura Ring 4 $349.00 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $349.00 at AmazonYour device tracks how long you seemed to be asleep, and makes guesses as to how much of that time was spent in light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep. Then, it distills it into a single composite score. It's a cool number to have, but it’s important to remember that this number is an approximation, and each company has its own grading system of sorts.
This is why it's impossible for a sleep score to be truly "accurate." Yes, all the data that going into your score (like your heart rate) might be accurate, but it's important to understand that the score itself is a made up number. Different companies have different definitions of "good" sleep, which vary from device to device. For instance, Oura and Apple both give scores ranging from 0-100, but where Oura labels a score of 70-84 as "Good," Apple has a range of 61-80 labeled as "OK." These scores aren't what you'd call clinical precision.
Still, for most people, clinical precision isn't the point. If the point is to get some behavioral feedback, then your smartwatch or sleep tracker is a great tool.
Whoop 5.0 $239.00 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $239.00 at Amazon"People are highly motivated by their scores," Robbins says. "Wearables can foster intrinsic motivation for behavior change by providing daily feedback." In other words, your score (good or bad) can prompt you to reflect on your actions: What did I do yesterday? What can I do differently tonight?
There's also a coaching element in some of these devices, like with the Oura Advisor. In these cases, wearables might go beyond passive monitoring to actively flag inconsistencies, like alerting you to irregular bedtimes (which disrupt the body's circadian rhythm over time). I could see myself genuinely not realizing my weekend schedule is undermining my weekday sleep, and that kind of alert would help me make a necessary change. These devices are particularly powerful "for individuals who are far from a healthy sleep routine, such as those with inconsistent schedules or insufficient sleep, by providing behavioral feedback and personalized recommendations," Robbins says.
Orthosomnia and sleep-tracking anxiety
Not everyone responds to data feedback with motivation. For some, daily sleep scores lead to something closer to dread.
"This phenomenon typically affects individuals already prone to anxiety about judgment, where receiving daily feedback can trigger a spiral of rumination and worry that ultimately limits their ability to get good sleep the following night,” Robbins says. You slept poorly, your score reflects it, anxiety about the score increases, that anxiety disrupts the next night, which produces another poor score, and so on. The stress from receiving poor scores creates a snowball effect of more poor scores.
If you're going to use a sleep tracker, the goal is to look at broad patterns, rather than obsessing over nightly scores. Hey, sleep is variable by nature, and even healthy sleepers have bad nights. What matters is whether your weekly average is moving in the right direction. Use monthly views, not daily ones, as your primary frame of reference.
Finally, know when to put the device down. "If tracking causes worry, take a break from the device, or avoid looking at the data," Robbins says. Maybe taking a week or two away from your sleep score, or simply not checking the app first thing in the morning, can break the anxiety spiral and let you approach sleep with less psychological warfare.
Some tips for getting better sleep
We all know this one by now, but still, it’s a tough habit to break. The blue light emitted by phones and laptops suppresses melatonin production; beyond the light, the mental toll of scrolling or responding to messages keeps the nervous system in an activated state that makes it tough to fall asleep.
Replace screens with something genuinely restful
You don't have to wait to feel tired and hope sleep follows. Instead, try to consciously build in ways to power down. Breathing exercises, light stretching, or perhaps a simple body scan meditation can all work wonders.
Stick to your sleep schedule
Be honest with yourself about stimulants
This is a tough one for me, but a 3 p.m. coffee can meaningfully disrupt your 10 p.m. sleep. Alcohol, meanwhile, may speed sleep onset at first, but it hurts the second half of the night.
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