SLEEP MAXIMISATION GOES MAINSTREAM
Antosiek, a 31-year-old who lives in Michigan, started to take sleep seriously a few years ago after realising that he never grew out of bad habits he developed in his early 20s, including drinking too much on weekends and staying up late.
Searching for information online, he stumbled upon a small but dedicated community called Sleep Hackers on the message board site Reddit, made up of people who regularly share tips and express frustrations with their own sleep issues.
Soon, Antosiek became a moderator for the forum, and his own habits changed. He started trying to get what he considered to be “the right amount of light at the right times” of the day, and using various sleep gadgets and trackers.
One of them was an Oura Ring, a sleep tracker that fit on his finger and provided him with a daily sleep score between zero and 100. The score meant a lot to him. On nights he had trouble falling asleep, he’d was hard on himself and feared the next morning’s results, knowing they would affect his chances of receiving an “optimal” score of 85 or higher.
For many sleep devotees, their fascination with hacks has remained a harmless hobby. Mayte Myers, 27, who goes to sleep wearing a jaw strap and mouth tape, said the elaborate bedtime ritual gave her something to look forward to. “It honestly feels like a weighted blanket for my face,” she said.
Similarly, Maureen Osei, a 24-year-old from North Carolina, puts on mouth tape, nose tape, a bonnet and a jaw strap before bed.
“It’s kind of like there’s nothing else to do but to fall asleep, because it’s so uncomfortable,” she said. “I’m not going to scroll with my chin strap on, you know?”
For others, though, focusing on sleep has backfired. Sarah El Kattan, a 26-year-old who lives in Frankfurt, never thought much about sleep. Then, near the end of 2021, she started to focus on optimising her health after listening to a popular health podcast.
She then read Dr Walker’s book, and that focus turned to her sleep. That’s when something like a switch went off in her head, she said. Suddenly, the prospect of going to sleep started to make her anxious, and she began to exhibit physical symptoms.
“It started with heart palpitations,” El Kattan said. The more she thought about sleep, the worse things became. At night, she knew every passing minute was another minute of sleep lost, and her obsessive thoughts created a vicious cycle that kept her awake for even longer.
Dr Walker said he had heard from other people who dealt with sleep issues after reading his book. He suggested that such people should stop focusing on sleep – “don’t listen to my podcast, don’t read the book, don’t do any of that,” Dr Walker said – and instead seek help from a professional.