By Andrés Muñoz

It seems like a new trend towards self-improvement pops up every day. This time, “sleepmaxxing” is taking the TikTok universe by storm. It promises to optimise our sleep for peak performance by using devices, regulating habits and making healthier lifestyle choices.

Sleep has always been tied to health issues, both physical and mental. Heart diseases and weakened immune systems are some of the physical ones, while depression and memory problems are some of the mental health problems a lack of good rest can bring.

While it is an important topic that must be addressed from a clinical standpoint, how effective are the techniques paraded all over the interwebs in these new videos? Furthermore, while the intention is noble, is it worth the obsessive focus? Let’s review a few healthy sleep elements and see how this trend approaches them.

The Science Behind Sleep Stages

Sleep is a process divided into several stages, according to this peer-reviewed Healthline article:

Non-Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Sleep:

  1. Stage N1: Light sleep that is easy to wake up from, characterised by slow eye movements and a transition from alpha to theta brain waves.
  2. Stage N2: Deeper sleep, but you are still easily awakened, and the body temperature begins to decrease.
  3. Stage N3: Deepest sleep that is difficult to wake up from, dominated by delta waves, where tissue repair, growth, and immune system strengthening occurs.

REM Sleep:

  1. Vivid dreaming occurs with increased brain activity similar to wakefulness. This part is essential for memory consolidation, brain development, and emotional processing.

The first complete sleep cycle usually lasts 70 to 100 minutes, while later cycles generally last between 90 and 120 minutes, according to a 2023 article by The Sleep Foundation.

Can Sleepmaxxing Improve Your Health?

At its core, sleepmaxxing is an umbrella term that covers a variety of techniques and gadgets to help establish a consistent sleep schedule, create a relaxing bedtime routine, and monitor your overall sleep cycles, all to attain a more restorative and rejuvenating sleep. 

It’s a broad term and a trend that pops up on content creation platforms that allows the ideation of many different points of view, some of which might not be 100% beneficial.

Its enthusiasts often incorporate popular sleep-enhancing products that have popped up in viral videos, like magnesium foot sprays, mouth tape, chin straps, and sleep trackers, into their routines to optimise their sleep experience.

That being said…

While these devices might help individuals with their sleeping schedule, the tried and true methods for a good night’s sleep remain. Thankfully, many sleepmaxxers also use and encourage these:

A consistent sleep routine consists of regular times to go to bed and to wake up. This helps regulate your body’s internal clock. This influences your sleep-wake cycle, energy levels, and hormone production. A consistent sleep schedule leads to deeper, more restful sleep, as your body anticipates and prepares for sleep at the same time each night.

Another vital portion of sleeping is where you catch those Z’s! Keeping your room cool and dark helps regulate your sleep in two ways: A lower temperature helps regulate body temperature, crucial for falling and staying asleep. Say goodbye to those night lights, as a dark room promotes melatonin production, a hormone that induces sleep.

Last, but not least, the trifecta of reduction: Lowering Caffeine, Alcohol, and Screen Use. The more you reduce the use of all these before bedtime, the better! First, caffeine is a stimulant that interferes with sleep. 

Reducing intake of caffeine, especially in the evening, can improve sleep quality. While alcohol sometimes helps you fall asleep faster (we’ve all heard of the classic nightcap), it can lead to poor-quality sleep and disrupt the sleep cycles. Finally, the blue light emitted by electronic devices can suppress melatonin production. Reducing screen time before bed can help regulate your sleep-wake cycle.

My Take On Sleepmaxxing

While all the products, devices, and apps being marketed on TikTok might help some people, excessive monitoring of one’s sleep schedule might produce the opposite effect. 

Imagine the scenario: You download a sleep monitoring app, and while you might feel accomplished when you fulfil your specific goals, when you don’t, there might be a feeling of not hitting the mark. Will that stress you out and make you sleep less? Daisy Jones, writing for Vogue UK, puts it nicely: 

“All those measures I’d put in place to maximise my sleep – no screen time before bed, lights off by 11pm, melatonin every night, tracking my REM hours digitally – had created an environment in which sleep was no longer a pleasant and necessary thing, but rather an extremely tense exercise that I had to engage in nightly.” 

So, where do we draw the line? My advice is this: Ditch the gizmos and gadgets and go back to the basics. What are your thoughts on sleepmaxxing? Let us know in the comments section below!