OPINION - What you think you know about sleep is almost certainly wrong

Sleep is like shoe size: one size does not fit all. Sleep has become yet another aspect of our lives that makes us anxious. Advice about sleep often resembles the commands of a regimental sergeant major. I frequently read “you must get eight hours of sleep” or “waking up in the middle of the night is bad”, and in the business community “success means getting up at 5am”. Rather than enjoying our sleep, it is now an endless cause of worry. Sleep apps and trackers only reinforce this anxiety. These devices should be ignored as they are currently both inaccurate and deeply misleading. Getting the “perfect night of sleep” has become an unattainable obsession and has led to a condition called “sleep anxiety”. A state where people worry about not falling asleep or staying asleep, triggering a negative cycle of worse sleep and increased anxiety. While it is possible to make generalisations about the length and timing of our sleep, applying an average as a standard for all of us is absurd.