My sleep-tracking earbuds discovered how this one thing in my nighttime routine ruined my sleep — here’s why I won't do it again

A woman with insomnia checks her alarm clock, which displays the time of 2am. Beside her, there is a screenshot of a sleep-tracking apps's AI assistant asking her if she is having trouble sleeping.

It's difficult to know how long it takes you to fall asleep. Unless, of course, you have a sleep tracker.

Yes, there have been low-tech ways to measure sleep onset latency, such as the spoon test (one of TikTok's many sleep trends) or sleep journaling, but these are harder to perform and much less accurate.