Sleep science’s blind spot: How outdated 1960s data shaped modern sleep tracking
New findings are forcing a rethink of sleep metrics and a move from measuring to enhancing sleep.
Millions of people have built an entire culture around tracking sleep. However, recent research has revealed that the very foundation of modern sleep analysis is built on an outdated male-biased model.
The scoring criteria for slow-wave sleep is characterised by a fixed threshold. This threshold can be traced back to a manual published by Rechtschaffen and Kales in the 1960s. What was established more than 60 years ago, was drawn from a sample of 33 participants who were predominantly 20-30 year old males. This has now perpetuated across sleep science and into the algorithms of sleep trackers today.
Recently, two reports from an academic journal by Dr. Shaun Davidson and Monika Haack have highlighted this oversight: applying scoring thresholds based on this young male “average” does not represent the sleep characteristics of women or anyone outside of that small subset.
People are chasing sleep scores based on a set of criteria that does not suit them.
These measures of sleep time permeate the wearable tech market. However, time based measures of sleep not only fail to represent what actually makes sleep beneficial, but they provide little benefit to users.
The industry is reaching an inflection point as the attitude towards the measure of sleep time is changing. Forward thinking companies are recognising that improving sleep doesn’t lie in providing more data, but rather in tools that actively enhance the restorative function of the brain and body during sleep.
Sydney, Australia based start-up Affectable Sleep is leading this charge. They’ve developed neurostimulation technology that directly enhances sleep’s restorative function. Instead of measuring sleep against outdated metrics. They stand out from the growing wave of sleep trackers by focusing on enhancing the brain and body’s ability to recover during sleep.
Affectable Sleep has overcome the challenges that held back previous attempts to make slow-wave enhancement accessible outside the lab. With patent-pending technology, the company has packaged the breakthrough in a consumer-ready product that delivers UltraSleep™, targeted neurostimulation that enhances sleep’s restorative function.