Is Your Sleep Tracker Making Your Anxiety Worse? What I Learned After Stopping

It's 2:47 AM. You just woke up for the third time tonight. Instead of trying to fall back asleep, you're doing something else: reaching for your phone to check your sleep tracker.

"Only 23% deep sleep so far. REM is way down. Sleep score: 61. That's terrible."

Your heart rate increases. The anxiety kicks in. Now you're definitely not getting back to sleep.

Sound familiar?

After six months of obsessing over my Oura Ring data, I finally asked myself a question that changed everything:

"Was I sleeping better before I started tracking it?"

The honest answer? Yes. Way better.

This is the story of what happened when I stopped tracking my sleep—and what I learned about the hidden cost of optimization culture, orthosomnia, and why sometimes the best thing you can do for your sleep is to stop measuring it.

What Is Orthosomnia? (And Do You Have It?)

Orthosomnia is a term coined by sleep researchers to describe an obsession with achieving "perfect sleep" that actually disrupts your sleep.

Here's how it works:

1. You start tracking your sleep to improve it
2. You become fixated on the numbers (REM %, deep sleep minutes, sleep score)
3. You start treating sleep like a test you're failing
4. The worry about your sleep score keeps you awake
5. Your sleep actually gets worse

It's a vicious cycle. And if you're reading this at 3 AM after checking your tracker, you're probably in it.

My Breaking Point: When Sleep Became a Performance Test

I bought my Oura Ring in August 2025. I was excited. "This will help me optimize my recovery. I'll finally understand my sleep patterns. I'll make data-driven decisions."

For the first month, it was interesting. I learned I was getting less REM than recommended. I discovered my heart rate variability dropped when I drank alcohol. Cool insights.

But then something shifted.

I started waking up with one thought: "What's my score?"

A score below 75? My whole day felt off. I'd tell people, "I only got a 68 last night," as if I'd failed an exam. I started avoiding social events because they might hurt my sleep score. I turned down a weekend trip because I knew I wouldn't sleep well in a hotel.

Sleep had become a performance metric. And I was failing.

The worst part? I was sleeping worse than before I started tracking.

The night that changed everything: I woke up at 2:30 AM, grabbed my phone, and saw my sleep score trending toward a 55. My heart started racing. I couldn't fall back asleep for two hours. In the morning, my Oura Ring confirmed it: Sleep Score: 54. Poor.

I sat there staring at the red number and thought: "This thing is making it worse."

The Science Behind Why Tracking Can Backfire

It turns out, I wasn't imagining it. There's actual research on this.

Study #1: The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (2017)

Researchers identified multiple patients who developed insomnia and anxiety after using wearable sleep trackers. The common thread? They were all trying to "fix" sleep that wasn't actually broken—but the act of monitoring it created problems that didn't exist before.

Study #2: Behavioral Sleep Medicine (2019)

When participants were given false feedback about their sleep quality (told they slept poorly when they actually slept fine), their cognitive performance the next day was worse. The belief that they slept badly—not the actual sleep—impaired them.

Here's the psychological mechanism:

Sleep requires letting go of control. You can't force yourself to fall asleep the way you can force yourself to exercise or eat vegetables. Sleep comes when you stop trying.

But when you're tracking sleep, you're introducing performance anxiety into a process that fundamentally requires the opposite: surrender.

Your brain treats it like a test:

• "Did I get enough deep sleep?"
• "Is my REM percentage up?"
• "Will tonight's score be better?"

And the moment you start treating sleep like a test, your nervous system gets activated. Activation is the enemy of sleep.

What Happened When I Stopped (The 30-Day Experiment)

In early January 2026, I decided to take a break. Not forever—just 30 days. I wanted to see what would happen.

Here's my journal from that month:

Days 1-3: Phantom limb syndrome. I kept reaching for my ring to check my score. I felt weirdly anxious not knowing my "sleep efficiency." Was I sleeping well? I had no idea. It felt uncomfortable.

Days 4-7: I stopped reaching for the data. But I started doing something else: checking in with my body. "How do I actually feel?" Turns out, most mornings, I felt fine. Better than fine, actually.

Days 8-14: The anxiety started lifting. I realized how much mental space the tracking had been taking up. I wasn't starting my day with a number that colored my whole mood. I was just... waking up.

Days 15-21: I slept through the night multiple times. No waking up to check anything. No 3 AM anxiety spirals. Just sleep.

Days 22-30: I felt genuinely rested. More than I had in months. The irony wasn't lost on me: I was sleeping better without the device that was supposed to help me sleep better.

The big realization:

My body was never the problem. The tracking was.

5 Signs Your Tracker Is Hurting More Than Helping

Not everyone needs to quit their sleep tracker. Some people genuinely benefit from it. But here are the red flags that it's crossed from helpful to harmful:

1. You Check Your Data Before You Check In With Your Body

If your first thought in the morning is "What's my score?" instead of "How do I feel?", that's a sign. Your body is the ultimate sleep tracker. If you're ignoring its signals in favor of a number, you've lost the plot.

2. Bad Scores Create Bad Days (Even When You Feel Fine)

Have you ever woken up feeling decent, then checked your tracker and suddenly felt exhausted? That's not your body—that's your brain being told it should feel bad. The data is overriding your actual experience.

3. You're Avoiding Activities Because They Might Hurt Your Score

If you've turned down social invitations, skipped workouts, or changed plans to protect your sleep score, the tracker has too much power over your life. Sleep is supposed to support your life—not dictate it.

4. You Wake Up at Night and Check Your Progress

This one is the clearest sign of orthosomnia. If you're interrupting your sleep to see how your sleep is going, you've entered an absurd loop. The tracker has become the problem it was meant to solve.

5. You Feel Guilt or Shame About Your Sleep Data

Sleep is not a moral achievement. You're not a "bad person" for getting 19% REM instead of 25%. If your tracker makes you feel guilty, it's no longer serving you.

How to Break Free: A Practical Exit Strategy

If you're reading this and thinking, "Okay, maybe I should try this," here's a step-by-step plan:

Option 1: The Cold Turkey Approach (30-Day Break)

1. Pick a start date. Not "someday"—an actual date on the calendar.
2. Remove the tracker completely. Don't just stop checking the data—take off the device. Put it in a drawer.
3. Replace the morning check-in. Instead of opening your app, ask yourself: "How do I actually feel right now? What does my body need today?"
4. Journal your experience. Write down how you sleep and feel each day. You're becoming your own tracker—just without the numbers.
5. Resist the urge to peek. If you're tempted to check "just once," remind yourself: the whole point is to break the dependency.

Option 2: The Gradual Approach (For People Who Love Data)

1. Week 1: Keep wearing the tracker, but don't check the data until the end of the week. Notice how you feel without daily feedback.
2. Week 2: Check data every other day instead of daily.
3. Week 3: Check once a week—same day, same time. Treat it like a casual health metric, not a daily report card.
4. Week 4: Take the tracker off completely for seven days and see how it feels.

What to Do at 3 AM When You Can't Check Your Tracker

This is when the anxiety will hit hardest. Here's what to do instead:

• Don't reach for your phone. Nothing good happens on your phone at 3 AM.
• Place your hand on your chest. Feel your heartbeat. Remind yourself: "My body knows how to sleep. I don't need data to tell me I'm okay."
• Use a short prayer or mantra. More on this in the next section.
• Do the 4-7-8 breath. Inhale for 4, hold for 7, exhale for 8. Repeat three times. This signals your nervous system to calm down.
• If you're still awake after 20 minutes, get up. Go to another room. Read something boring (not your phone). Return to bed when you feel sleepy.

A Spiritual Perspective: Sleep as Surrender, Not Control

Here's the deeper truth that took me a long time to accept:

Sleep is inherently spiritual. It's an act of surrender.

Every night, you lie down and let go of control. You trust that your body will take care of itself while you're unconscious. You can't will yourself to sleep—you can only create conditions and then let it happen.

This is why tracking often backfires: you're trying to control something that requires surrender.

In Scripture, sleep is presented as a gift, not an achievement:

"In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety." — Psalm 4:8

"It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep." — Psalm 127:2

Notice the pattern? Sleep is something given, not earned. It comes from rest, not effort.

When you track your sleep obsessively, you're treating it like a work project. But sleep isn't work—it's the opposite of work. It's a nightly practice of letting go.

FAQ: Your Questions Answered

The Bottom Line: You Already Have the Perfect Sleep Tracker

Here's what I want you to remember:

Your body has been tracking your sleep for your entire life. It knows when you've rested well and when you haven't. It sends you signals:

• Energy levels throughout the day
• Ability to focus and remember things
• Mood and emotional resilience
• Physical performance

These are more accurate measures of sleep quality than any number on a screen.

Sleep is not a test you can fail. It's a gift you receive. It's not something to optimize to perfection—it's something to surrender to.

You deserve rest, not another thing to stress about.

If you're reading this at 3 AM in a panic, here's what I want you to do:

1. Close this article
2. Put your phone down (not on your nightstand—across the room)
3. Take three deep breaths
4. Say this: "My body knows how to sleep. I'm safe. I can rest."

You've got this. Your body is on your side. And tomorrow morning, when you wake up, you'll handle whatever comes—sleep score or no sleep score.