Viral wellness trend ‘Sleepmaxxing’: Ultimate guide to optimising your sleep?

In a world where fast paced lifestyles and hectic schedules take over, getting adequate sleep is more difficult than ever. Enter sleepmaxxing, a wellness trend that focusses on optimising sleep habits for restful and restorative sleep through lifestyle and technological strategies.
The trend has quickly found traction – and for good reason. A survey from August this year found that the number of Indians who got less than six hours of interrupted sleep rose from 50% in 2022 to 61% in 2024.
We look at whether sleepmaxxing is key to a happy, healthy and well-rested self, or just another fad that adds to the pressure and anxiety to achieving ‘good’ sleep.
Several factors contribute to poor quality sleep or difficulty falling and staying asleep. Some of the include – inconsistent sleep schedule, screen time before bed, high levels of stress, anxiety, or engaging in mentally stimulating activities close to bedtime (such as checking emails or playing video games), poor sleep environment, eating heavy meals or snacks late at night and consumption of caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol which are stimulants that interfere with the body’s ability to relax and fall asleep,” shares Dr Pankaj Chhabra – Clinical Director, Respiratory & Sleep Medicine at Marengo Asia Hospitals, Faridabad.
Garima Tiwari, clinical nutritionist at Shalby Hospital, says, “Eating heavy meals or snacking late at night forces the digestive system to work harder, leading to indigestion and poor sleep. Opting for lighter meals earlier in the evening helps the body rest.”
Additionally, she says consuming stimulants such as caffeine, nicotine and alcohol can interfere with the body’s ability to relax. “While alcohol may help with falling asleep, it tends to disrupt sleep later in the night,” she adds.
This includes maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, creating a conducive sleep environment (using blackout curtains and maintaining a cool room), and managing stress through relaxation techniques like deep breathing or meditation. One can also use sleep tracking apps, mouth tape, soothing sprays, heavy blankets to promote relaxation.
Soothing sounds such as music of rain, waves can help too. Moreover, one can go go for light therapy lamps, smart lighting which starts to dim, meditation and mindfulness apps to calm and relax your mind. “Use sleep aids (like melatonin or medications) after consulting with a healthcare professional. They can be helpful, but they shouldn’t replace natural sleep habits,” suggests Dr Akshay Budhraja, senior consultant and HOD Respiratory & Sleep, Aakash Healthcare.
Dr Vikas Mittal, pulmonologist and board certified sleep specialist, ISSR, ISDA, director, ‘Wellness Home’ Chest Clinic and Sleep Centre, believes that sleepmaxxing is just an internet trend which is good way to make the GenZ to realise the importance of sleep but with the nonscientific methods may do more harm than benefit and delay the person from seeking medical help from a sleep specialist.
He also adds, “If you don’t get good sleep and it occurs for months together you may have a sleep disorder and there are 86 known sleep disorders and you need to consult a sleep specialist and you should just not take help of sleep aids and over the counter pills.”
Experts say that quantity and quantity of sleep also depends on age, sex and genetic. Adults need 6-8 hours but depending on genetic makeup you may do well even with 4 hours called short sleepers and some may need more than 8 hours called long sleepers.
Tiwari says that while sleepmaxxing aims to enhance sleep, it’s important not to become obsessed with tracking or perfecting sleep, as this can lead to “orthosomnia,” where an unhealthy fixation on sleep performance negatively affects restfulness.
To this, Mittal also adds, “Pressure to get a good night sleep can cause anxiety and lead to a disorder called pscho-pysiologoical insomnia in which patients suffer from heightened anxiety of not able to sleep and that make the insomnia worse and perpetuates the already present insomnia.”