New Yorkers Are Obsessed With Tracking Their Sleep, Steps, and Stress
Wearable rings and bands have turned personal health into a data stream — and spawned a new anxiety about the numbers.
The quantified self has gone mainstream in New York, where rings, watches, and bands now track residents' sleep, heart rate, and stress in relentless detail. The devices have become a fixture in the city's wellness-obsessed circles, dinner-table conversation and status symbol at once.
The fictional startup Pulseband sells a screenless tracker aimed at people who want the data without the notifications. Its founders argue the future of wellness tech is quieter, surfacing insights rather than constant alerts.
Yet clinicians warn of a new stress: anxiety over the numbers themselves. For every user who sleeps better, another lies awake worrying about a low score — a paradox at the heart of the tracked life.
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