Sleeptech: a lot of technology to sleep worse

In 2022, Nespresso earned B Corp certification (for socially and environmentally responsible businesses) thanks to its aluminum capsule recycling program.

This shows how a company can be the source of a massive global problem and then gain recognition by offering a partial solution aimed at mitigating it—and, quite often, creating new problems in the process.

Is something similar happening with our sleep?

In recent years, there has been a noticeable decline in sleep quality, largely linked to the heavy use of digital devices. At the same time, the industry is offering solutions that promise to improve our sleep.

The problem: people are sleeping worse

In most countries, sleep is under threat. Seventy percent of the world’s population does not get the recommended amount of sleep, and according to the World Sleep Society, serious sleep disorders will affect 45% of the population if current trends continue.

According to the Spanish Society of Neurology, 48% of adults do not enjoy quality sleep – because it’s not just about the number of hours we sleep. Among the trends, we’re seeing, for example, an increase in wake time (time spent in bed without actually sleeping), which is a sign of poor sleep.

In France, between 2019 and 2023 alone, people lost an average of 34 minutes of sleep per night on weekends [INSV/MGEN Survey, 2023].

And although there are some discrepancies between countries, what stands out is the consistency of this tendency.

It is well known and proven: sufficient, restorative sleep is essential for physical, mental, cognitive, and emotional development at any age, but especially among children and adolescents—who are among those most affected. For example, 40% of them suffer from insomnia in Spain.

The primary cause: anxiety. According to a 2024 study covering 17 countries, 42% of people who sleep poorly attribute it to this factor—a figure that has risen sharply in recent years, as we have already noted here.

How can such a sudden shift be explained?

There are undoubtedly various explanations to this phenomenon, but the role played by hyperconnectivity is becoming increasingly evident. The average of more than five hours people spend on their smartphones is primarily an alternative cost: this time eats into the time devoted to other activities… including sleep.

It is no coincidence that some of the most powerful tech companies openly acknowledge that they are competing with our sleep.

Beyond the impact of blue light (emitted by screens at wavelengths between 380 and 500 nm) on the suppression of melatonin, the hormone that promotes sleep, the often irresistible distractions offered by digital devices pose fierce competition for boring sleep.

A systematic review of the scientific literature has highlighted the significant impact of social media on sleep quality.

Studies show that young people who use screens in the hour before bedtime sleep less and have poorer sleep quality. And as we know, the use of these platforms is constantly on the rise.

“A lawsuit against TikTok in the United States revealed that 19% of users aged 13–15 and 25% of those aged 16–17 were active on the platform between midnight and 5 a.m.”

These trends are not getting any better. According to data from the Gasol Foundation, Spanish minors spend 11 more hours per week in front of screens than they did three and a half years ago. A study in the state of Utah in the United States also showed that the proportion of young people spending more than 2 hours a day on screens (excluding educational digital content) accounted for 80% of their age group in 2023, compared to 66.7% in 2019.

No worries: technology will fix our sleep

Did you think the solution would come down to common sense? Cutting back on screen time, reading before bed instead of scrolling, and so on? In other words, redefining the role technology plays in our lives so that it doesn’t have such a big impact on our sleep, among other things…

The industry has another proposal: connect even more to provide a technological solution to the problem. Welcome to sleeptech. Or perhaps we should say, the sleep business.

This branch of digital services is part of the “quantified self” movement: an invitation to constantly measure our physical and biological activity—from the number of steps taken each day to our vital signs—in order to monitor and optimize it through our smartphones, wearables, or other specialized devices.

As always, tech giants play a major role in this market:

Google, with the Nest Hub, which tracks our sleep data without any invasive sensors (it looks like a small tablet sitting on the nightstand).

The Samsung Health app, available on any Samsung Galaxy Watch or Fit, which even lets you record your snoring (very interesting).

Apple, via the Health app on iPhone or Apple Watch.

In addition to these, there are a myriad of startups such as Oura and its $300 smart ring, which also requires a monthly subscription. The ring measures all biometric activity using infrared LEDs that feed into Oura’s algorithm and determine sleep quality.

The goal of these apps is not only to measure sleep but also to improve it. Through gamification mechanisms, they constantly encourage users to improve their sleep quality.

The pinnacle is undoubtedly reached by the game Pokémon Sleep, launched by the famous Nintendo franchise, which proclaims: “Turn your sleep into entertainment!”

So much so that, for many customers in this rapidly growing market, sleep has become a veritable obsession… which sometimes ends up keeping them awake. Every morning, upon waking, their first instinct is to check their sleep performance, like a student waiting for their exam score.

Orthosomnia

Sleep tech has given rise to a new syndrome: orthosomnia. It’s a form of obsession and anxiety stemming from the desire to optimize one’s sleep. This may seem paradoxical, given that experts tell us the best way to achieve this is to not worry about it too much.

In the most extreme cases, those obsessed with sleep statistics tape their mouths shut at night, following the advice of influencers such as Gwyneth Paltrow or Ivanka Trump. “On nights when I tape my mouth shut, my score increases by an average of 7%,” one user told the Wall Street Journal. A dangerous practice, according to doctors.

If you’re still tempted by sleep tech, perhaps you should ask yourself one last question: but where does all this data go?

Our sleep patterns, just like other biometric data, are a powerful predictor of well-being, personality, and the risks each individual faces. This information can be invaluable for anticipating a user’s behavior, influencing them, or enriching their profile—which is highly useful for financial and insurance companies.

And even though European legislation is designed to protect our rights in this area, there are numerous examples where protocols requiring companies to anonymize and protect personal data (particularly health-related data) have not been followed, or where data breaches have resulted in data ending up on the dark web.