Spent $300 optimizing my sleep. Blackout curtains, white noise machine, sleep tracker. My sleep got worse. Because now I'm anxious about my sleep score.

🌱 Health & Lifestyleby sleep_score_stress · 3w ago

▸ What I did

Bought an Oura ring ($299), blackout curtains ($80), a white noise machine ($40), and a temperature-regulating mattress pad ($200). Started following every sleep hygiene rule.

▸ What I expected

Optimized sleep. High sleep scores. Waking up refreshed.

▸ What actually happened

I started checking my sleep score first thing every morning. A bad score ruined my entire day. I started lying in bed THINKING about whether I was falling asleep fast enough, which kept me awake. The clinical term is "orthosomnia" — anxiety caused by trying to achieve perfect sleep.

▸ What I've tried so far

Tried ignoring the sleep score (couldn't). Tried different white noise sounds. Tried melatonin. The irony: I was sleeping BETTER before I tried to optimize it.

Progress Updates (1)

Experiment: 7 days with no sleep tracker. No score, no data, no graphs. Just... going to bed when I'm tired and waking up when I wake up. Night 1: fell asleep in maybe 20 minutes (instead of the usual 45+ while anxiously monitoring my sleep onset). Night 3: slept through the night without waking. Night 7: I feel more rested than any week in the past 2 months. The data was supposed to help me sleep. It was keeping me awake. I still use the blackout curtains and the consistent bedtime. But the ring is in a drawer. Maybe I'll put it back on in a month when the anxiety has faded. Or maybe I'll just... trust my body to sleep without giving it a grade.

0 / 3000

2 Replies

adhd_productivity · 1w ago✓ the fix

Orthosomnia is way more common than people think. The Oura/Whoop/Apple Watch sleep tracking features have created a generation of people who are anxious about the one activity that requires you to NOT be anxious. The paradox is built into the product design: you can't optimize an unconscious process by being more conscious of it. Keep the blackout curtains (they actually help). Keep the consistent bedtime (circadian rhythm is real). Ditch everything that makes sleep a competition with yourself.

nutritionist_no_bs · 1w ago

"Why We Sleep" is a great book that has unfortunately terrified a lot of people into sleep anxiety. Walker's data is solid but the takeaway shouldn't be "if you don't get 8 hours of perfect sleep you'll get dementia." It should be "sleep matters, do your best, don't stress about it." The single best thing for sleep quality (backed by evidence) is consistent wake time — wake up at the same time every day, including weekends. That's it. No gadgets required. Your body figures out the rest.

Status

⏳ figuring

Stats

Me too0

Replies2

Following0