In summary:
- The rise of “sleepmaxxing” reflects broader social media trends around optimisation, encouraging extreme and rigid routines rather than balanced, healthy sleep hygiene.
- Influencer-driven advice promotes one-size-fits-all rules, disregarding individual differences in sleep needs, body clocks and lifestyles.
- Sleepmaxxing can fuel distress, frustration and even harmful behaviours (e.g. avoiding social activities, overusing supplements, or risky practices like mouth taping).
- While many sleepmaxxing strategies stem from valid research (e.g. consistent wake times, morning light exposure), they are often misapplied or oversold.
- Psychologists can help by validating clients’ motivations, tailoring strategies to individual needs, and encouraging flexible, “good enough” sleep practices rather than rigid perfection.
- Evidence-based approaches such as cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) remain the gold standard for managing persistent sleep difficulties. Sign up for APS's CBTi e-learning here.
Psychologist Dr Liora Kempler MAPS highlights the risks of popular ‘sleepmaxxing’ trends circulating on social media and explains how psychologists can help clients navigate them with evidence-based, flexible approaches.
In recent years, the language of ‘maxxing’ has infiltrated online health and wellness spaces. From “Looksmaxxing” to “Fibremaxxing,” social media influencers have embraced the language of optimisation as a way of taking everyday habits to their perceived peak. Now, sleep has entered the mix.
“Sleepmaxxing” is being promoted as a path to sharper cognition, better productivity and even long-term disease prevention. For psychologists, this presents both an opportunity and a challenge, with clients more aware than ever of sleep’s importance, but also increasingly vulnerable to misinformation proliferating online.
“Sleepmaxxing takes traditional sleep hygiene to an extreme,” says Dr Liora Kempler MAPS, psychologist. “Instead of focusing on consistent, healthy routines, it pushes individuals towards strict, sometimes unrealistic, behaviours designed to ‘optimise’ sleep to the max without considering personal circumstances or risks involved.”
From hustle culture to hyper-optimisation
Cultural attitudes to sleep have shifted dramatically over the past decade or so. In the early 2010s, high-profile CEOs and celebrities proudly boasted about their ability to function on four or five hours of sleep a night. Short sleep was framed as a badge of honour – perceived evidence of discipline, ambition and productivity.
Today, that narrative has flipped, notes Dr Kempler. A growing body of research has linked poor sleep to increased risk of mental illness, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia, while also confirming the benefits of good sleep for memory consolidation and emotional regulation.
“We’ve gone from glorifying minimal sleep to glorifying the perfect sleep routine,” says Dr Kempler. “That shift reflects broader wellness and optimisation trends, amplified by social media, wearables and the desire to quantify progress.”
Unlike exercise or diet, however, sleep is not fully under voluntary control, she adds.
“You can’t flick a switch and fall asleep on demand. The more tightly you try to control sleep, the more elusive it becomes.”
For psychologists, one of the most visible consequences of sleepmaxxing is the distress it causes when people cannot achieve the routines they see promoted online.
Dr Kempler says she often sees clients who feel they are “failing” at sleep because the influencer-endorsed strategies are not working for them.
One of the main problems is the loss of individuality, she says. Social media platforms encourage the idea that a single set of rules – whether it be waking at 5:30am every day, cutting out caffeine entirely or drinking a nightly “sleepy girl mocktail” – will work for everyone.
“Advice on TikTok might work for the influencer sharing it but fails to account for the huge variability in people’s sleep needs, body clocks and life demands,” says Dr Kempler. “Applying one-size-fits-all rules often leads to disappointment or even harm.”
A second issue is the rigidity that comes with trying to maximise sleep, she adds. Healthy sleep thrives on flexibility, but many maxxing routines demand strict adherence.
Dr Kempler cautions that this can exacerbate perfectionistic traits and heighten anxiety.
“I see clients who become so fearful of the long-term consequences of poor sleep that they become obsessed with their routines,” she says. “They stop drinking coffee entirely or refuse to go out in the evening because they're terrified of ruining their sleep. The anxiety driving those behaviours ends up overriding any benefit the behaviours might have offered.”
Part of what makes sleepmaxxing so alluring is its gamification elements. Apps and wearables reward users for meeting targets, creating the same dopamine-driven reinforcement that underpins other forms of goal-tracking.
But while gamification might work for exercise or reading challenges, sleep cannot be achieved in the same way.
“This creates a cycle of frustration,” says Dr Kempler. “Clients tell me, ‘I’ve tried everything,’ and often they have. But the problem isn’t effort – it’s that the strategies aren’t individualised, balanced or applied in a supportive way.”
This frustration can be particularly damaging for those predisposed to insomnia or health anxiety, perfectionism or other mental health disorders.
“The people most attracted to sleepmaxxing are often the ones who suffer most when it doesn’t work,” says Dr Kempler. “It reinforces their identity as ‘bad sleepers’ and makes them cling even more tightly to routines that may not be helping.”
Some trends also carry real risks. The practice of mouth taping, where individuals tape their mouths shut to encourage nasal breathing overnight, is one example.
“In an uncontrolled environment, deliberately blocking an airway during sleep is dangerous without medical oversight,” warns Dr Kempler.
Other practices, such as overuse of supplements or reliance on unregulated products, may undermine people’s confidence in their own ability to sleep without external aids, she adds.
Separating evidence from hype
Not every practice associated with sleepmaxxing is unfounded, says Dr Kempler.
Many of the strategies being promoted online have their origins in evidence-based sleep science. Maintaining consistent wake times, exposing oneself to morning light to regulate circadian rhythms, limiting alcohol intake, and keeping the bedroom cool are all well-supported by research, she says.
Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) remains the first-line treatment for persistent sleep difficulties, says Dr Kempler, and has been shown to be more effective in the long term than pharmacological options.
Daily melatonin supplementation, for example, is frequently promoted as a cure-all for insomnia, despite evidence showing it is only appropriate in specific circumstances.
“Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone, and it is necessary for sleep, but taking a supplement when one is not deficient isn’t necessarily effective. It’s great when you’re jet lagged or have circadian disruptions, but it’s not a quick fix every night in the long term. Similarly, the magnesium supplement is not necessary, but it can help, particularly if you are magnesium deficient.
“If people [consistently] start taking magnesium, melatonin, or a whole cocktail of supplements, they might stop attributing sleep onset to their own ability [to fall asleep]. It can result in a psychological dependence.”
Wearables present another double-edged sword. While devices like Fitbits and Apple Watches can offer useful insights into patterns of sleep and wake, they are not accurate diagnostic tools.
“Tracking may be interesting, but daily monitoring often just adds stress,” says Dr Kempler.
“Tracking devices can make [people] obsessive with the measurement of their sleep. Unless you have EEG electrodes on your brain, it’s likely an estimation at best and not entirely accurate. It might be offering people something, but it’s not offering the whole story.”
How psychologists can respond
For psychologists, supporting clients caught up in sleep maxxing requires a careful balance of validation and redirection. The first step is to acknowledge the client’s motivation.
“The key is to help them pursue those benefits in ways that are flexible, evidence-based and tailored to their individual needs," says Dr Kempler.
Rather than prescribing generic rules, psychologists can explore when the client last experienced good sleep and what conditions supported it, she says.
“Instead of saying ‘everyone needs eight hours,’ I ask people to think about a time when their sleep felt restorative and explore their sleep patterns at that time.
“Often, I’ll give people an 80/20 rule where I’ll explain, 'Once we’ve regulated your sleep, if you implement good sleep practices 80% of the time, the 20% is less likely to matter. It’s not going to throw it out, and it’s not going to worry you. That’s a much healthier perspective, so you can go and socialise, and you can enjoy the benefits that sleep has to offer you, instead of being rigid and anxious about it.”
Finally, psychologists can help clients apply behavioural strategies correctly and with support.
Dr Kempler points to bed restriction therapy – a core element of CBT-I – as an example. While often recommended online, many people attempt it incorrectly and give up just as it is about to take effect.
“These strategies work, but only if applied methodically and with the right skills and knowledge. TikTok can’t provide that nuance,” she says.
“Good enough sleep, practised flexibly over time, is far more valuable than perfect sleep chased night after night."
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