Our obsession with sleep could be doing more harm than good
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So desperate are we to find the secret to sleep, that privacy concerns are often pushed to one side and we’ve become over-reliant on data - and now technology companies are reaping the rewards.
By Matthew Field
In the search for a perfect night’s sleep, we’ve downloaded apps, strapped on sensors, switched on bedside microphones and invited the world’s tech tycoons into our bedrooms.
Roughly $1.6bn has been pumped into apps, gadgets and mattress companies in the sleep sector since 2016, according to Crunchbase, peaking with $611m in deals in 2020.
Apple, Amazon and Google have all developed products or snapped up start-ups building sleep-focused technology.
In 2017, Apple acquired Beddit, a Finnish sleep tracking start-up that offers a $149 device that slips under the bedsheets and records movements. The tech giant also recently patented an “in-bed haptic device” which can be inserted into a person’s bed on top of their mattress before they go to sleep.
It could use sensors that moni...
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