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Too hot, too cold. On your stomach, then your side. Thoughts spiraling. Counting sheep. Checking the clock. Unable to sleep.
We've all been there, shuffling around in the sheets and wondering why we can't do the one thing we've wanted to do all day.
But what if trying to get the perfect night's sleep is actually making it harder?
"Sleepmaxxing" is the latest social media trend promising people the "optimal" night's sleep.
Sleepy girl cocktails. Room sprays. Mouth tape. Blackout blinds. Mattresses that promise to be the "perfect" temperature. The recipe for a good night's sleep has somehow become increasingly complicated.
From fibermaxxing to looksmaxxing and now sleepmaxxing, the "maxxing" trend is about identifying something you want to improve, then doing everything you can to optimize or maximize it.
"Sleep tends to shy away from effort," says clinical psychologist and sleep researcher Dr. Amelia Scott.
Unlike many things we try to improve, sleep isn't something we can simply force ourselves to do.
"Sleep is something that we have to let happen rather than make happen," Scott says.
And our desire to optimize sleep may reflect something bigger: our growing obsession with becoming the ideal version of ourselves.
"The maxxing movement is just another angle for industries to own the space to be perfectly calm, happy, skinny and attractive—the ideal self, which to my mind is a myth."
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