Before coffee, before checking the inbox, many now start their day by checking a number: their sleep score.

Sleep has shifted from an invisible baseline to a measurable performance metric. In busy workplaces where productivity is everything and being available shows ambition, the idea of hacking your way out of exhaustion fits the mindset.

Here’s the paradox: we have more data on sleep than ever before, but we’re still tired.

WE SLEEP LESS — AND WE KNOW IT

Across the GCC, sleep deprivation is a real issue. Surveys indicate that more than 40 percent of UAE residents sleep fewer than six hours a night, while studies in Saudi Arabia suggest that roughly half the population fails to reach the recommended seven-hour minimum. Insomnia rates in some areas are over 60 percent, with the UAE and Saudi Arabia among the highest.

Recent anonymized Oura data adds another layer of nuance. UAE-based members average around 6.85 hours of sleep per night, below the global average of roughly 7.1 hours, yet record relatively strong sleep efficiency at around 85 percent. In other words, when people in the UAE are in bed, they tend to sleep efficiently. They just aren’t in bed long enough.

That difference matters. Good sleep efficiency doesn’t make up for not getting enough sleep. Even short sleep that’s “high quality” can still lead to cognitive, metabolic, and emotional problems over time.

VISIBILITY ISN’T THE VILLAIN

Critics argue that wearables merely measure a crisis rather than solve it. Tom Hale, CEO of Oura, sees it differently. “It is important to separate correlation from cause,” he says. “People have been sleeping less for decades, long before wearables existed. What wearable technology has changed is visibility.”

He shares internal data showing 88 percent of Oura members see big sleep improvements. “What is measured is managed,” Hale says. “We’ve designed work, cities, and lifestyles that quietly deprioritize rest. For most people, sleep has been invisible. You couldn’t see the cost of short nights or constant strain until it showed up as burnout or illness.”

In the UAE, Oura’s data, revealing a shorter duration but strong efficiency, tells, in Hale’s words, “a more nuanced story.” It is not simply about instructing people to sleep more, he says, but about understanding quality, timing, and recovery within real-world constraints. The ring’s purpose is not to optimize people into exhaustion but to give language to what their bodies are already signalling.

WHEN SLEEP BECOMES A SCORECARD

Still, quantifying rest introduces its own tension. The rise of orthosomnia, anxiety driven by chasing perfect sleep metrics, suggests that turning sleep into a score can backfire.

Hale knows the risk. “We designed the Oura Ring to encourage learning, not fixation,” he says. “The ring isn’t about chasing perfect scores. It’s about helping people recognize cause and effect in their own lives.” He emphasizes that the device avoids constant alerts and sleep interruptions, focusing on trends and long-term baselines. “A single night doesn’t define you — patterns do.”

“If someone learns how late dinners affect their heart rate, how alcohol disrupts REM sleep, or how stress accumulates across a week and then starts making choices instinctively, that’s success,” Hale adds. “Eventually, you may not need to check it every day.”

The goal isn’t constant monitoring but understanding your body better.

THE AIRPORT AS A SLEEP LABORATORY

If wearables highlight sleep debt, airports make it impossible to ignore.

Air travel remains one of the most disruptive factors for circadian rhythm. According to research from Airport Dimensions, 96 percent of frequent business flyers report accumulating sleep debt, and 98 percent admit to attending high-stakes negotiations or presentations while fatigued, meaning critical decisions are routinely made under impaired cognitive conditions.

Andrew Van Eeden, Managing Director of Airport Dimensions EMEA, thinks we tolerate exhaustion more than we should. “Sleep debt has long been treated as an unavoidable byproduct of flying,” he says. “But our tolerance for chronic exhaustion is increasingly out of step with what we know about performance and health.”

Many airports are racing to add wellness lounges and recovery technology. “These amenities may make exhaustion more comfortable,” says But Van Eeden, “but they don’t resolve it. The science is unequivocal: sleep debt can only be repaid through sleep itself.”

This idea drives Sleepover stations at Dubai International Airport. These private, bookable sleep spaces inside terminals offer rest, not just a wellness vibe. “The goal isn’t to normalize exhaustion,” Van Eeden says. “It’s to address it head-on, recognising that well-rested travellers don’t just feel better — they perform better.”

ENGINEERING REST IN A HYPERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT

There is something almost paradoxical about creating calm inside the world’s busiest transit hubs. Dubai International Airport processes up to 300,000 passengers a day, each anchored to a different time zone and circadian rhythm.

Airport Dimensions understands this contradiction well. In 2022, it launched Game Space in Terminal 3, a 24-hour gaming lounge catering to passengers seeking stimulation. Just steps away sits a Sleepover station, designed for silence, darkness, and guaranteed wake-up calls.

“It couldn’t be further from the buzz of the gaming lounge,” Van Eeden says. “That’s the beauty of the airport ecosystem — full of contradictions of pace and passenger needs waiting to be met.”

Still, he admits long-term sleep health depends on lifestyle choices. Short-term recovery during travel isn’t a permanent fix, but it’s necessary. Data shows that 32 percent of business travelers say a lack of sleep harms their mental well-being. After back-to-back flights, 46 percent feel more stressed, 37 percent are less patient and more irritable, and 22 percent experience depression or anxiety. These aren’t minor issues; they affect performance.

Supporting short-term recovery, Van Eeden says, is about protecting people within existing systems until those systems change.

BEYOND BIOHACKING

The key point is: technology is just one tool, not the full solution.

Hale thinks anonymized wearable data can shape research, workplace policies, and healthcare partnerships, helping organizations understand fatigue and associated risks with real evidence rather than guesswork. Van Eeden sees similar effects in travel. When travelers get proper rest during transit, expectations change. Exhaustion no longer feels unavoidable.

But neither says a ring or sleep pod can beat a culture that values late nights, constant connection, and nonstop work.

The next frontier is not smarter algorithms or sleeker sleep pods. It’s making strategic rest part of leadership, travel rules, and workplace culture. The boldest move might not be working harder. It could be sleeping smarter and finally seeing recovery not as a luxury, but as essential infrastructure.