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One of the first things I do every morning is check my Oura Ring to see what sleep score the night yielded for me. It typically falls somewhere in the 80s. I scan to see how much deep sleep and REM I clocked. Earlier this week, my colleague Nicole Nguyen wrote about which data to trust from Oura and other wearables. She also compared it to her experience having her sleep graded by professionals.  

If you’ve been tuning into the U.S. Open, you’ve seen Oura branding front-and-center. The wearable-ring device maker struck up a five-year partnership with the U.S. Tennis Association as well as brand-ambassador deals with star players Taylor Fritz and Coco Gauff. The company, which has been around for more than a decade, is expected to IPO soon.

In recent years, our collective obsession with sleep optimization has seemingly skyrocketed. Consumers share tips on how to “sleepmaxx” on social media, recommending devices, from wearables to smart mattresses and alarm clocks, along with DIY remedies like “sleepy girl mocktail” concoctions containing magnesium.

Just don’t go overboard with a too-extensive nighttime routine, says Dr. Feby Maria Puravath-Manikat, a sleep-medicine physician in the Bay Area. “Then, it’s become more of a performance versus a ritual where there’s intention.”  

Kelly Baron, a professor at University of Utah’s division of public health and a clinical psychologist trained in behavioral sleep medicine, helped coin the term “orthosomnia” in 2017, referring to the unhealthy preoccupation with achieving a perfect night’s sleep. 

Baron told me this week she recently had someone come into her clinic “wearing several different trackers and giving me spreadsheets and different analysis.” 

“I was like, ‘Is any of this helping you or is it making you feel worse?’” she asked the patient. Sleep scores “can be a helpful guide,” she said, but shouldn’t be something to place too much stock in.

Oura, which offers other health insights like step count and heart rate, has faced pushback on the accuracy of its sleep scores. The company has stood behind its data’s accuracy and noted that both its algorithm and clinical sleep studies involve some degree of error.

It’s not just wearable trackers like Oura, Fitbit, Whoop and Ultrahuman that people are turning to for graded sleep. There’s smart devices such as Eight Sleep, known for its mattress sleep pod system, which delivers slumberers with a “sleep fitness” score. This week, I came across an influencer’s Instagram story sharing her baby’s 100 sleep score via Nanit, the smart baby-monitor system. At the end of last year, the company introduced the sleep metric, which it says is based on sleep duration, timing, continuity and how many times the parent attended to the baby throughout the night.

Read on for top stories of the week, from the Journal and elsewhere. Send me your thoughts on this week’s newsletter and what you’d like to read about in future editions. You can contact me at sara.obrien@wsj.com. If you’re reading this in your inbox, you can just hit reply!

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• Boomers Are Moving Into Retirement Communities Alongside Their Parents. Like their parents, many boomers don’t want to deal with home maintenance, rising property taxes and insurance costs. There is also the peace-of-mind factor.

• Patients Are Flying to China for the Latest Cancer Treatment. Shanghai is emerging as a favored destination for patients from America and other rich countries—a testament not only to China’s low costs but also to the country’s emergence as an innovator in biotechnology. 

• Elon Musk’s Inner Circle Is Pouring Cash Into Making Psychedelics Mainstream. SpaceX directors have spent millions of dollars on philanthropic efforts to mainstream psychedelic drugs, including MDMA, the drug commonly known as ecstasy and molly.

• It’s 10 p.m., and Your Kids Want to Know Where You Are (WaPo)

• Lilly’s GLP-1 Windfall to Fund Push Into Women’s Health (Bloomberg)

• Dior Pushes ‘Haute Wellness’ Strategy (BoF)

This week, my feed was flooded with people dissecting the trailer and early coverage surrounding the upcoming documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, “You Can See Everything,” co-directed by comedian Nathan Fielder and filmmaker Lance Oppenheim. The film was kept under wraps for years, until it was revealed at a surprise screening at Telluride Film Festival on Sunday. Holmes, who was convicted of defrauding investors in her once-highflying Silicon Valley blood-testing startup Theranos, granted Fielder intimate access to her life in the month leading up to her reporting to prison in 2023. The filming continued after she was behind bars.

I’m Sara O’Brien, a reporter covering the intersection of culture, health and wellness. Each week, I’ll take you inside the latest health trends to help you understand where they came from, who’s profiting and whether they’re worth your money. Send me feedback or questions at sara.obrien@wsj.com (if you’re reading this in your inbox, you can just hit reply). Got a tip for us? Here’s how to submit.