Sleepmaxxing and the Anxiety of Rest

You might’ve noticed a trend that’s sweeping TikTok and Gen Z culture: sleepmaxxing.

It’s the idea that you can, and should, optimize your sleep in every possible way. People are building elaborate nighttime routines, buying gadgets, tracking their cycles, and sharing hacks for how to squeeze out that “perfect” night of rest, all in the name of optimization.

On one level, this is great. Sleep is an important factor in brain health, mental health, and emotional regulation; however, there’s a dark side to sleepmaxxing.

In this piece, we’ll explore sleepmaxxing and how to avoid its shadow. For a deeper dive, you can listen to the latest episode of Mental Health Bites here or on Apple Podcasts, and you can find more short clips and helpful tips at my YouTube channel.

Let’s dive in.

The Shadow Side of Sleepmaxxing

It’s no wonder people want to sleepmaxx. Sleep has many benefits. It helps regulate your mood, strengthen memory, and boost problem-solving. It even resets your stress response system. However, there’s a dark side.

The dark side of sleepmaxxing is orthosomnia. While admittedly it has a less catchy name, it’s just as important to your health.

Orthosomnia is when you worry about your sleep to the point that it actually prevents you from sleeping.

You’ve probably been there before, lying awake in bed thinking: Am I asleep yet? Am I doing it right? Will I feel awful tomorrow if I don’t hit my eight hours?

That anxiety itself is enough to spike your nervous system, flood you with stress hormones, and keep you awake. And this is where sleepmaxxing starts to backfire.

When we over-optimize rest, we turn it into another performance goal, and sleep becomes something to achieve rather than something to allow. This can lead to a sleep performance anxiety loop, where our worries about sleep keep us up. This happens because sleep is deeply influenced by our mindset and stress levels, and the more pressure we put on ourselves to sleep “perfectly,” the harder it becomes.