Letter From the Editor-in-Chief: Is Worrying About Sleep Keeping Us Awake?

A recent study has found that higher levels of REM and deep sleep are linked to a lower risk of 83 different diseases, including dementia, hypertension, and Parkinson's. However, nearly 70% of Americans say anxiety disrupts their sleep, and some researchers fear that sleep trackers, meant to help, may be making things worse. This condition is called orthosomnia, which is when the anxiety from analyzing sleep scores actually worsens poor sleep.

Despite the data, Healthline's Editor-in-Chief Robin Hough remains concerned about his own sleep habits, as he is a busy father of two young children, including an 8-year-old who is always ready to ask questions about the world. The study, published in PLOS Medicine, found that the amount of REM sleep a person gets is linked to a lower risk of many diseases, while deep sleep was associated with a lower risk of seven health conditions.

The study used wrist trackers to gather detailed sleep data from over 95,000 participants in the UK Biobank database. However, the author of this account, who is also very busy, worries that obsessing over sleep data from wearables and constantly reading sleep-related information can actually worsen sleep quality. The author argues that while the study is important, it needs to be presented in a way that is not overwhelming or anxiety-inducing.