Orthosomnia - the paradox of pursuit

Last night I had the best sleep I've had in weeks. And unfortunately, I achieved it by breaking one of our foundational principles of Snooze Fest. Last night... (this is hard to type out)... I didn't wear my whoop. In fact, I didn't wear it the night before either. Here's why.

Measurement is awesome. Actigraphy (the method of measurement Whoop and other wearables use) is a really powerful tool at giving us feedback, which is essential for growth (See Intro to Whoop on day 1 to hear all about that). But sometimes, striving for perfection can be dangerous.

Orthosomnia is a relatively new term that describes this situation best. A British peasant from the 1700s would've never experienced this problem: orthosomnia is defined as "an obsessive pursuit of optimal sleep that is driven by sleep tracker data that may lead to worse sleep".

This new concept has yet to be studied in depth, given tracking sleep with wearables has only really become widespread in the last 10 years, but it is real, and I have felt it.

I live, eat, drink, breathe and dream sleep. That's my job. And I love it. But it also means there's an incredible pressure to get perfect sleep every night. How could I help people get better sleep when mine is garbage?

Orthosomnia seems to be a mix of psychological and physiological effects. The idea is that the mind, preoccupied on worrying about sleep, pumps the body with a dose of cortisol and activates your nervous system. This keeps your body and your brain awake doing the exact opposite of our goal - a classic paradox of pursuit. The body, then, which loves ritual, pattern formation and habit, will make this the norm. Getting in bed no longer means falling asleep, but it means stressing about sleep.

So what do you do with this double-edged sword? Great question.

I've been wearing my whoop for 8 months now, so this feels weird to, but I've simply stopped wearing it. And it worked. I slept incredibly well yesterday. This is not to say that I'll never put it back on. But for now, I need to retrain my body to associate bed with falling asleep rather than thinking about falling asleep.

Measurement is important. But once you know the foundational principles of sleep, you really have 2 options: Keep measuring and crushing the numbers (on Whoop), or go by feel. Once you know the main things that can help you get better sleep, you can just enjoy the feeling of being well rested rather than thinking about your sleep and recovery scores. That's how everyone has done it for all of human history.

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