'M-apping’ sleep? Trends and transformations in the digital age

Abstract

This article critically explores recent trends and transformations in the monitoring and management of sleep in the digital age, taking as its focus the advent of new digital technologies to trace and track the ‘sleep of ourselves’ far away from the conventional sleep laboratory or clinic. Our argument is situated dually in the history of sleep science and medicine on the one hand, and the rise of new digital forms of so-called self-tracking and mobile health (m-Health) on the other hand. While the recent history of sleep science and medicine may rightly we suggest, in Kroker's terms, be characterised as a concern with the ‘sleep of others’, a new chapter in this story may well be dawning through the advent of these smart new mobile tools and technologies for mapping, or ‘m-apping’ as we term it, the ‘sleep of ourselves’ in the digital age. The problems and prospects this holds are then critically considered – through the interrelated themes of selfhood, sociality and governance – and some preliminary conclusions ventured in this new digital domain