The problem with sleep scores
You may have experienced this. You start treating your insomnia, whether through cognitive behavioral therapy, sleep medication, melatonin, or strict sleep hygiene protocols. A few weeks in, your tracker shows better numbers: more hours, fewer nighttime awakenings, improved sleep efficiency.
Key Takeaways
- A 2026 University of Maryland study identified exactly this gap: improving your nighttime sleep scores isn't the same thing as recovering from insomnia.
- After just 2 weeks of treatment, daytime smartphone assessments detected treatment effects more powerfully and precisely than traditional questionnaires.
- The practical recommendations in this article can be applied immediately without special equipment.
And yet during the day, you're still dragging. Focus is hard. The fatigue is still there. You're not performing the way you should be.
That disconnect isn't in your head. A 2026 University of Maryland study identified exactly this gap: improving your nighttime sleep scores isn't the same thing as recovering from insomnia. And the way we evaluate treatment effectiveness needs to change accordingly.
What the study found
Researchers at the University of Maryland compared two methods for evaluating insomnia treatment. The traditional approach: standardized questionnaires completed by patients. The alternative: smartphone-based assessments measuring daytime function in real time, multiple times per day.
The finding was clear. After just 2 weeks of treatment, daytime smartphone assessments detected treatment effects more powerfully and precisely than traditional questionnaires. They also revealed something questionnaires were missing: patients whose nighttime scores improved but whose daytime functioning didn't progress, or progressed much less.
This raises a fundamental question: if someone sleeps longer but remains cognitively impaired during the day, can you really say the treatment is working?
The sedation mismatch
This gap between nighttime scores and daytime function is particularly well documented with certain sleep medications. Benzodiazepines and some z-hypnotics, for instance, do genuinely improve sleep metrics: total duration, number of awakenings, sleep onset latency. But their sedating effect often persists well beyond waking.
The result: a patient using this type of treatment will show strong scores on their tracker or sleep diary while still experiencing fatigue, cognitive slowing, and irritability during the day. Their sleep data says things are fine. Their body says something different.
That's exactly the kind of signal that real-time daytime smartphone assessments can catch, and that weekly questionnaires miss entirely.
Why this matters if you're active
For anyone who trains regularly, this distinction matters more than usual. Recovery from insomnia shouldn't be measured only by nighttime sleep quality. It should be measured by your ability to actually function during the day: reaction time, decision-making, available energy for physical effort, training quality.
If you're treating a sleep problem and your training performance isn't coming back, your concentration is still impaired, or your physical recovery still feels off, it doesn't necessarily mean the treatment isn't working. It may mean the treatment is improving your nights but not your daytime function, and those are two different things that deserve to be tracked separately.
What you're actually aiming for
What this research implies is a reframe of the therapeutic goal. When you're treating insomnia, the objective isn't to improve the numbers on a fitness tracker. The objective is to restore normal functioning during waking hours.
In practice, that means the questions you ask yourself each morning shouldn't only be "did I sleep well?" but also: am I alert? Can I focus? Do I have enough energy for what I need to do today? Is my mood stable?
If the answers stay no despite apparently better nights, your daytime symptoms deserve as much attention as the sleep itself. Sometimes that means adjusting your treatment approach. Sometimes it reveals secondary factors, chronic stress, diet, sedentary time, that are contributing to daytime fatigue independently of nighttime sleep quality.
Also read: Catching Up on Sleep Over the Weekend Cuts Depression Risk by 41% and Stanford's AI That Predicts 100+ Diseases From Sleep Data.
Functional recovery, not just a better morning HRV score, is where the goal should sit.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many hours of sleep do athletes need for optimal recovery?
Most active adults need 7 to 9 hours. Athletes in heavy training phases benefit from the higher end of that range, as growth hormone release and muscle repair peak during deep sleep.
What are the signs of poor recovery?
Persistent fatigue, declining performance, sleep issues, irritability, unusual joint pain, and plateauing despite consistent training are the main warning signs.
Do wearables accurately measure recovery?
Fitness wearables provide useful trends, especially for sleep and HRV tracking. But they don't replace listening to your body and working with a qualified professional.