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Case Reports
. 2017 Feb 15;13(2):351-354.
doi: 10.5664/jcsm.6472.

Orthosomnia: Are Some Patients Taking the Quantified Self Too Far?

Kelly Glazer Baron  1 , Sabra Abbott  2 , Nancy Jao  2 , Natalie Manalo  2 , Rebecca Mullen  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Orthosomnia: Are Some Patients Taking the Quantified Self Too Far?

Kelly Glazer Baron et al. J Clin Sleep Med. .

Abstract

The use of wearable sleep tracking devices is rapidly expanding and provides an opportunity to engage individuals in monitoring of their sleep patterns. However, there are a growing number of patients who are seeking treatment for self-diagnosed sleep disturbances such as insufficient sleep duration and insomnia due to periods of light or restless sleep observed on their sleep tracker data. The patients' inferred correlation between sleep tracker data and daytime fatigue may become a perfectionistic quest for the ideal sleep in order to optimize daytime function. To the patients, sleep tracker data often feels more consistent with their experience of sleep than validated techniques, such as polysomnography or actigraphy. The challenge for clinicians is balancing educating patients on the validity of these devices with patients' enthusiasm for objective data. Incorporating the use of sleep trackers into cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia will be important as use of these devices is rapidly expanding among our patient population.

Keywords: cognitive behavioral therapy; insomnia; technology.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Ms. B's 2-week sleep diary, created by the patient cutting and pasting (by hand) sleep tracker data. (B) Segment of Ms. B's polysomnogram demonstrating alpha frequency in N2 and N3 sleep. (C) Ms. B's hypnogram and oxygen saturation, demonstrating increased proportion of N3 sleep, average number of awakenings, and few oxygen desaturations.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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