Staff Reports
Men used to measure themselves by deeds, not devices. Today we watch a generation trade grit for graphs, courage for charts and bold action for bedtime scores. Matt Walsh lays this out plainly in his new episode — and he’s right to point a finger. The question is whether this obsession with sleep tracking and “healthmaxxing” is progress, profit or a new kind of weakness dressed up as self‑improvement.
The New Religion of Sleep
This week Matt Walsh called out what he calls the healthmaxxing cult — men obsessing over every minute of rest, every heart‑rate variability blip and every sleep stage. It’s worth mocking because it looks absurd: men pinning their self‑worth to a little ring or wrist band. But the mockery isn’t the whole story. This isn’t just a fad on social media; wearables are mainstream now. Companies like ŌURA and WHOOP have turned sleep into a product and a prestige signal. When gadgets replace guts, you get a lot of men who can log perfect REM cycles and still flinch at a hard conversation.
The Business Behind the Bedtime Score
There’s money behind the movement, which explains a lot. ŌURA has sold millions of rings and its CEO Tom Hale says the company could be “close to $2 billion” in sales as it scales toward an IPO. WHOOP, founded by Will Ahmed, isn’t far behind — adding more than 600 roles as it moves from elite athletes into everyday consumers. That kind of cash makes optimization sound like destiny. The market for wearables is huge and growing, and these companies profit when users obsess over metrics. If you think they’re trying to help you sleep better out of the goodness of their hearts, I have a subscription model to sell you.
The Science: When Data Does More Harm Than Good
The clinical record gives the critics some real ammo. Studies show consumer trackers can separate sleep from wake fairly well, but sleep‑stage accuracy varies by device and algorithm. More importantly, researchers have named the psychological downside: orthosomnia. That’s the tracker‑driven anxiety where obsessing over sleep numbers actually makes sleep worse. Doctors are starting to adapt cognitive‑behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT‑I) to help patients who get trapped by their devices. So yes, some tracking is useful; but if your ring ruins your nights because you can’t stop refreshing the app, you’ve traded truth for torment.
What Men Should Do Instead
There’s a practical, manly way out of this: use tools, don’t worship them. If a wearable nudges you to move more or sleep a bit better, keep it. If it becomes a measure of your identity, toss it. Real strength is built by action — doing hard things, taking responsibility, sleeping because your work and life earn it, not because an app told you to score an 85 tonight. Men who built countries didn’t log REM percentages; they faced problems and did the work. That’s not a rejection of medicine or technology — it’s a reminder to put them in their proper place.
Conclusion
Matt Walsh is right to call out the sillier edges of healthmaxxing. The rise of ŌURA and WHOOP shows the trend has teeth — and cash — behind it. Clinical research warns us that data can heal, but it can also hurt when used as a substitute for judgment and courage. So keep using your head, not just your band. Sleep matters, but it shouldn’t become the latest way to signal virtue while avoiding the duties that actually make men stronger.
