Orthosomnia
Orthosomnia is a medical term for an unhealthy obsession with getting perfect sleep.[1] The term was coined by researchers from Rush University Medical College and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in a case study published on February 15, 2017 in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine titled "Orthosomnia: Are Some Patients Taking the Quantified Self Too Far?" in which the researchers noticed that the three patients having their sleep tracked spent excessive time in bed in order to increase their "sleep numbers", which might have actually made their Insomnia worse.[1][2][3][4]
Dr. Sabra Abbott, an assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern University and one of the researchers involved in the study, first noticed Orthosomnia when she and her colleagues started having "a number of patients coming in with a phenomenon that didn't necessarily meet the classical description of insomnia, but that was still keeping them up at night".[3][4] Abbott also noticed that because the people suffering from Orthosomnia became so dependent on their sleep tracking devices, "they were actually destroying their sleep" because they weren't measuring up to what their tracker considered a "good" amount of sleep.[4]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Zraick, Karen; Mervosh, Sarah (June 13, 2019). "That Sleep Tracker Could Make Your Insomnia Worse". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ X. Chen, Brain (July 17, 2019). "The Sad Truth About Sleep-Tracking Devices and Apps". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 17, 2019. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ a b Baron, Kelly Glazer; Abbott, Sabra; Jao, Nancy; Manalo, Natalie; Mullen, Rebecca (15 February 2017). "Orthosomnia: Are Some Patients Taking the Quantified Self Too Far?". Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. 13 (2): 351–354. doi:10.5664/jcsm.6472. PMC 5263088. PMID 27855740.
- ^ a b c MacMillan, Amanda (April 27, 2018). "What Is Orthosomnia? All About the New Sleep Disorder You've Never Heard Of". Health.com. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved December 28, 2020.