{"id":396463,"date":"2026-03-21T10:32:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T10:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/396463\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T10:32:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T10:32:22","slug":"warning-to-anyone-using-sleep-apps-as-some-told-to-turn-them-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/396463\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning to anyone using sleep apps as some told to turn them off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millions of people now use apps to help with their sleepNeil Shaw<\/strong><\/a> Assistant Editor (Money and Lifestyle)<\/p>\n

06:16, 20 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

\"Sleep<\/p>\n

Sleep apps are designed to help<\/p>\n

Apps designed to improve sleep can stress out people with insomnia, research suggests. While they may help some people, apps<\/a> tracking sleep may not always give accurate results and can cause worry, experts said.<\/p>\n

The use of smartphone apps \u201chas increased significantly\u201d and often rely on sensors embedded in wearable devices such as smartwatches and fitness bands, researchers from Norway wrote in the journal Frontiers In Psychology. \u201cThis technological progress has coincided with an increased interest and awareness regarding sleep health, and the majority of health apps now include sleep monitoring as part of their daily tracking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team said sleep apps generally track the time people go to sleep, how long they sleep for and some have data on the quality of sleep, offering a \u201csleep score\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Your<\/p>\n

Your app could be increasing your anxiety<\/p>\n

For their study, they recruited 508 men and 494 women with an average age of 50. Some 461 said they currently used a sleep app or had done so previously, with most relying on a smartwatch (411), followed by a mobile app (65). Sleep app use was more common among women than men.<\/p>\n

Over half (around 57%) of those aged 18 to 50 used apps, which was significantly higher than for older age groups. People were asked about their experience of the apps, both positive and negative, and their feelings around using them. Positive effects were reported more often than negative effects, the study found.<\/p>\n

Some 15% of respondents said the apps improved their sleep, while 2.3% of respondents reported worse sleep. Overall, the most common benefit was learning more about one\u2019s sleep (48% of people), whereas the most common negative effect was worrying more about sleep (17%).<\/p>\n

The researchers wrote: \u201cOur findings may indicate that younger users are more strongly affected, both positively and negatively, by sleep app use compared to older adults. Specifically, younger age groups (18\u201335 and 36\u201350 years) were more likely to report beneficial effects, such as \u2018improved sleep\u2019 and \u2018prioritise sleep\u2019, whereas older participants (66+) were less likely to report such advantages.<\/p>\n

\u201cYounger adults have a greater tendency to use electronic media in bed, which suggests that younger age groups may have more potential to improve their sleep habits, and thus report greater perceived effects from sleep apps.<\/p>\n

\"Millions<\/p>\n

Millions use technology to track their sleep<\/p>\n

\u201cMoreover, the two youngest age groups also reported higher levels of stress and concern (\u2018increased sleep-related stress\u2019 and \u2018developed concerns about my sleep\u2019), suggesting that they may be more susceptible to the negative effects of digital health information.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study further found that people with insomnia reported more negative effects of sleep apps. \u201cIn particular, individuals with insomnia seemed to be more prone to negative thoughts and worries about sleep,\u201d the researchers wrote. People with insomnia more often agreed or totally agreed with the statements \u201csomething wrong with my sleep\u201d and \u201cmore worried about my sleep\u201d.<\/p>\n

The team suggested possible reasons for this, including that people with insomnia \u201coften exhibit excessive cognitive activity and attentional biases (eg heightened focus on sleep-related threats and negative expectations about sleep interventions).\u201d<\/p>\n

They also may have \u201cdysfunctional beliefs about sleep\u201d and problems \u201cdisengaging from sleep-related concerns\u201d. The team concluded: \u201cAs a result, sleep app use may serve as a potential contributor to increased sleep-related stress and worry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researcher Karl Lundekvam, from the University of Bergen, said: \u201cWe would urge people who get more stressed by using sleep apps to learn more about which measures they use and how accurate they are. If this does not calm your worries, you should consider taking off your sleep app device during the night-time or turning off notifications.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage sleep app users to use the feedback as motivation to create helpful sleeping habits. For instance, minimise screen time before bedtime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hakon Berge, of the University of Bergen, said: \u201cWe would also encourage people to listen to their body and go to bed when you actually feel tired. The bed and the bedroom should be associated with sleep, and going to bed before your body is ready to sleep will cause you to lie awake in bed, and this may exacerbate your sleep problems further.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is more beneficial to go to bed when your need for sleep actually requires it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millions of people now use apps to help with their sleepNeil Shaw Assistant Editor (Money and Lifestyle) 06:16,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[257],"tags":[1307,18,525,19,540,17,279,5756,82],"class_list":["post-396463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-apps","tag-eire","tag-fitness","tag-ie","tag-insomnia","tag-ireland","tag-mobile","tag-smartphones","tag-technology"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116266712853557882","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}