Tip #40: Sleepmaxxing – Helpful Hype or a Trap?

Don’t let the obsession with perfect sleep ruin your sleep.

Lately everyone seems to be talking about “sleepmaxxing” – the idea that you should optimize every single thing about your sleep to squeeze out the best possible night of rest. You’ve probably seen the videos: people taping their mouths shut, swallowing magnesium and melatonin before bed, wearing eye masks, blasting white noise, dropping the bedroom temperature to arctic levels, tracking every heartbeat with a smart ring, and reviewing their “sleep score” first thing in the morning. Some of this is genuinely useful. Some of it, I think, completely misses the point. Let me explain.

The good parts are just sleep hygiene

A lot of the basics behind sleepmaxxing are just good old sleep hygiene dressed up in a trendy new word. Keeping your room cool and dark, going to bed at a consistent time, and cutting screens before bed – these things actually work, and I’ve written about most of them already. If a fancy new label gets you to finally take your bedroom seriously, great.

Where it becomes a trap

But here is where it gets tricky. The moment you start chasing a perfect “sleep score” every single night, you risk falling into a trap. Researchers even have a name for it now – “orthosomnia” – an unhealthy obsession with achieving perfect sleep, often triggered by sleep-tracking gadgets. The irony is brutal: people get so anxious about their sleep data that the anxiety itself keeps them awake.

I’ve felt a bit of this myself. There was a week when I checked my sleep tracker the second I woke up, and a “bad” number genuinely put me in a worse mood than the tiredness ever did. That’s backwards. Your body is not a smartphone battery that needs to hit 100% every night. Some nights are just going to be worse than others, and that’s completely normal. And while we’re at it – be careful with the pile of pills and supplements that often comes with this trend; I’ve shared my thoughts on sleeping pills before.

My tip

So here is my tip. Take the useful parts of sleepmaxxing – the cool dark room, the consistent bedtime, the no-screens routine – and quietly ignore the part that turns sleep into a competitive sport. Don’t tape your mouth shut because a stranger online told you to, and please don’t lie in bed stressing over whether tonight will earn you a gold star. Build a few simple habits, trust your body, and let waking up early be the natural result of decent sleep – not the prize at the end of an anxious nightly obsession. Sweet dreams, and don’t overthink them.