Orthosomnia: How Your Sleep Tracker Is Making Your Sleep Worse

11 Sept 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:41

In this brief podcast excerpt, the host introduces the term "orthosomnia," describing the phenomenon where obsessively monitoring sleep scores actually degrades sleep quality. The speaker explains that constantly checking a sleep number creates a performance mindset that prevents the nervous system from relaxing, turning sleep into a graded activity rather than a natural surrender. Listeners are urged to stop looking at the score, leave the tracker aside, and let their bodies dictate how they rested. The segment ends with a plug for the "The Instant Alignment" podcast, which delivers short daily peace messages.

Chapters

Your sleep score is making your sleep worse. There's a clinical name for it now: orthosomnia. It's what happens when tracking your rest quietly turns into monitoring your rest. You wake up, reach for the number, and the number decides how tired you're allowed to feel that day. Your nervous system cannot relax while it's being graded. Sleep isn't a performance. It's a surrender. And surrender doesn't happen under surveillance. Tonight, leave it on the dresser. Let your body tell you how you slept. More like this on the podcast, The Instant Alignment. Peace delivered daily in under 2 minutes.