Tracking My Sleep: Forget Everything I've Ever Said with Dr. Seema Khosla
42m | Sep 21, 2020In this episode
- Why Neil abandoned Fitbit as the primary measurement tool for his sleep-experiment project
- Seema Khosla’s box of sleep technology
- AYO blue-light glasses and circadian timing
- Why the timing of bright light matters as much as the light itself
- Ravi Allada’s Major League Baseball jet-lag study — and the corrected 20-season dataset
- Forehead oximetry and the arrival of blood oxygen on Apple Watch Series 6
- Why more sensors do not automatically mean better clinical information
- Apple’s original simpler sleep-tracking approach
- Orthosomnia and the danger of letting a sleep score decide how you feel
- Why Seema first asks patients what prompted them to start tracking
- Consumer tracker data as a reason to ask a clinician a better question
- The Dreem 2 EEG headband and why it changed Neil’s book plan
- What EEG adds that an ordinary wrist tracker does not directly measure
- How Dreem later performed in PSG validation studies
- Why a Dreem movement count cannot be compared directly with a laboratory PLMI
- The current Waveband descendant of Dreem technology
- CBT-I inside a consumer sleep device
- Why dose and timing matter when talking about melatonin
- Internet sleep advice, cannabis anecdotes and evidence
- Why the tracker should contribute information rather than dictate reality
- Seema’s continuing role as host of AASM’s Talking Sleep
About Dr. Seema Khosla
Seema Khosla, MD, FCCP, FAASM, is medical director of the North Dakota Center for Sleep in Fargo and a physician board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary medicine, critical care medicine and sleep medicine. She has served in multiple leadership and technology roles with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, including chairing its Consumer and Clinical Technology Committee. She is the longtime host of the AASM podcast Talking Sleep.
MENTIONED
Dr. Seema Khosla
Current professional bio and sleep-medicine work.
Seema Khosla and Talking Sleep at the AASM
Consumer Sleep Technology: AASM Position Statement
The 2018 position statement led by Khosla on how consumer-generated sleep data can — and cannot — be used clinically.
World Sleep Society Recommendations for Sleep Trackers
The 2025 recommendations on fundamental sleep measures, proprietary metrics, clinical use and device selection.
2025 Wrist-Worn Sleep Tracker Meta-Analysis
Twenty-four studies and 798 participants comparing consumer wrist devices with polysomnography.
Orthosomnia
The original 2017 clinical case series that introduced the term for unhealthy perfectionism around tracker-generated sleep data.
Dreem Headband vs. Polysomnography
The 2020 EEG and sleep-staging validation study discussed in the archive update.
Read the Dreem validation study
Dreem in Older Adults and Alzheimer’s Disease
A 2025 independent evaluation showing both useful accuracy and important stage- and signal-specific limitations.
Beacon Biosignals / Waveband
The current descendant of Dreem’s clinical EEG-headband technology.
Beacon’s Dreem acquisition and Waveband
Apple Watch Series 6 and Blood Oxygen
Apple’s September 2020 announcement that had just happened when this conversation was recorded.
Apple Watch Sleep Apnea Notifications
The 2024 regulatory milestone showing how consumer sensors later moved toward a specific validated clinical screening use.
Ravi Allada: Jet Lag and Major League Baseball
The 20-season, 46,535-game study discussed during the light-therapy segment.
Personal Light Treatment Devices
Newer work on wearable blue-light and blue-blocking devices for circadian alignment in an operational setting.
Talking Sleep: Wearable Sleep Tech
Seema’s 2026 follow-through with members of the World Sleep Society tracker task force.
Julie Flygare on Narcolepsy
The earlier Snooze Button episode highlighted here for World Narcolepsy Day.
