Can Wearable Tech Help With Chronic Sleep Problems?

According to the US Center for Decease Control and Prevention (CDC), 70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep problems. Physical injuries, mental illness, and chronic diseases are the leading causes of chronic sleep problems. Advances in digital technologies promise to help improve this condition. One such innovation is wearable technologies to monitor sleep patterns and provide feedback on how they might change their routine for better sleep habits. This blog post will explore what that means and how it works.

What Are Chronic Sleep Problems?

Chronic sleep problems occur over an extended period. In the past, these have been considered a minor inconvenience and often dismissed as just being part of life. However, new research has shown that chronic sleep deprivation is not only significantly disruptive to physical health but also impacts memory recall, judgment-making skills, impulse control issues (easing depression), and more. The most common and potentially dangerous examples of chronic sleep problems include insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, fatal familial insomnia (FFI) (a genetic disorder), and circadian rhythm disorders.

Critical Effects of Chronic Sleep Problems

Research has found chronic sleep problems to increase a person’s risk for obesity due to reduced appetite-suppressing hormones such as leptin in their bloodstream, leading to a preoccupation with food, exacerbating the risk for obesity and diabetes. Sleep deprivation has also been shown to heighten sensitivity to pain in some individuals due to its effects on an area within the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex.

Sleep deprivation can also lead to a high risk of heart disease, stroke, and sudden death. Lack of sleep has been shown to impair the immune system’s ability to function properly by reducing the production of white blood cells that fight infection. It can also increase certain stress hormones such as cortisol, contributing to cardiovascular problems or an inflammatory response.

Without even looking at scientific studies, we all know how important sleep is. It is a critical component to good health and wellness because it impacts energy, mood, and overall quality of life.

What Is Wearable Tech and How can it Help with Chronic Sleep Problems?

Wearable technology is a device worn on the body as opposed to being placed in one spot. There are generally two types of wearable devices: commercial consumer products and medical devices. Consumer wearables are typically pieces of clothing or jewelry like a fitness tracker or smartwatch. Medical devices are usually prescribed by a doctor and worn on the body, such as the continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) for sleep apnea.

Medical devices are generally more expensive, less user-friendly, and often need an expert to analyze the data. However, consumer-oriented ones, such as Fitbit and the Apple Watch, have been marketed to track sleep patterns in recent years. “With the Sleep app on Apple Watch, you can create bedtime schedules to help you meet your sleep goals,” reads a statement on Apple’s website. “Wear your watch to bed, and Apple Watch can track your sleep. When you wake up, open the Sleep app to learn how much sleep you got and see your sleep trends over the past 14 days,” it adds.

However, Apple and most other manufacturers do not tell us about the algorithm they use to monitor sleep. A few research papers validate or invalidate the accuracy of the data collected by these devices. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) has described PSG, which stands for polysomnography, as the gold standard for measuring sleep and has yet to endorse any commercial device that does not use this technology. A PSG records brain waves, eye movements, breathing rate, blood oxygen levels, and pulse during sleep. These measurements can be used to diagnose different types of disorders.

Nevertheless, unlike the first generation of smartwatches, which relied only on body movement to track sleep patterns, the latest generation depends on a multi-sensory approach, providing the potential to detect the wearer’s sleep state more accurately. The new watches use a combination of movement and heart rate data. If proven accurate, these trackers can become a valuable tool for researchers who have found it challenging to gather field data in a free-living population. Researchers have often relied on gathering data from labs, where a person is wired up to monitors and data loggers, and the data may not represent what happens during sleep at home.

For consumers, Alan Schwartz, MD, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, says that even if these devices are not 100% accurate, they can still be helpful to recognize sleep patterns.

“They do not measure sleep directly,” he said in an article on his school’s website. “Most sleep-tracking devices make some guesstimate as to how much you are sleeping,” he adds.