The ambivalent assemblages of sleep optimization

ABSTRACT In the last decade, self-tracking technologies have encouraged users to optimize various biosocial practices. Through a wide array of smart digital devices and apps, users are put on notice: are they aware of the screen time they accrue each day, the steps they have (not) walked, or the last time they stood up? In the resulting sphere of mediated self-awareness, sleep is ripe for calculation, analysis, and optimization. Essential yet unconscious, sleep is a practice that manifests as an ambivalent example of wider self-tracking logics; an alluring “data frontier” for users and corporations alike. In this article, I draw on qualitative data (N = 38), collected in Australia, to explore the experiences and practices of self-trackers who monitor their sleep. Using interview data and participant screenshots, I discuss how apps construct sleep standards, social dimensions of sleep metrics, gamified incentives, and the process of assembling codes/spaces around sleep monitoring. In bringing sleep within a sphere of rational control, apps often exclude difference by focusing on consumer choice, wellness, and self-care. While imprecise and fungible, sleep metrics act as proxies for productivity, and reify normative understandings of time-use, energy, and sleep.