Yuval Fefer uses the Apple Health app on phone and the Fitness app on his Apple Watch every day, tracking both his sleep and daily activity as he tries to keep his wellness and study habits in check as a freshman at Nova Southeastern University in Davie.
“I have a goal set of 600 calories burned, 60 minutes of activity, and 10 hours of standing. It keeps me active and aware of what I need to hit throughout the day,” said Fefer, 18, a business management major.
In South Florida, wellness culture is top of mind year-round, with health apps becoming an essential and addictive part of daily life. From tracking heart rate to monitoring sleep after long study nights, wearable technology is used everywhere — and sometimes even obsessively.
Health app usage has skyrocketed in South Florida, mirroring national trends, according to Dr. Jennifer R. Garcia at NSU’s Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine.
“Over the years, health apps have evolved from simple step counters to comprehensive platforms integrating fitness, sleep, mental health, and even electronic health records,” Garcia said.
College students in South Florida have adopted these technology practices to provide structure and motivation.
This sense of accountability is exactly what draws people to consistent app use, especially when balancing busy schedules. Tools can help build self-awareness around sleep and activity, experts say.
Dr. Jaime Tartar, a neuroscientist at NSU who specializes in sleep and stress, stated that “the wearable technologies that exist now are much better than they used to be. They are pretty good at telling you total sleep duration, how long it took you to fall asleep, and sleep fragmentation.”
But experts are sounding the alarm on a growing side effect of this digital health boom: Orthosomnia, a form of sleep anxiety brought on by obsessively tracking sleep data. Sleep researchers coined the term orthosomnia to describe a paradox: People using apps to improve their sleep, but the pressure to achieve “perfect” scores making their sleep worse.
“Some people track their sleep and get anxiety about those metrics,” Tartar said. “If it’s making you worried that you’re not getting enough sleep, then it’s probably not a good idea to be using those wearables.”
Frantzy Charles, 22, a Health Service Management master’s student at FAU, said, “I wear my watch to bed every day to see how many hours I sleep each night. I also keep track of the length and the quality of my sleep using my watch.”
But he admits to being a bit addicted to his fitness app.
“I use my Apple Watch to track my steps every day. I am always on the fitness app, competing with my friends and making sure I reach my daily goal of 10,000 steps,” he said.
While the demand is growing, so are the drawbacks. Dr. Jonathan Banks, a psychologist at NSU, warns that over-monitoring can turn helpful data into daily stress.
“Sometimes it’s helpful to take breaks from that kind of obsessive data-driven focus,” Banks said. “When you wake up, don’t immediately check the app; check in with yourself on how you feel.”
A study conducted by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business with 100 participants found that those who tracked the number of steps they walked reported walking less and feeling less satisfied. Participants also reported that the walk felt more like a job rather than a calm experience.
Author and nutritionist Elizabeth Moye detailed her experience with FitBit on her blog, Hello Spoonful. She wrote about how step-tracking became an addiction, causing her to constantly challenge herself and raise her goals to stay at the top. Over time, her focus shifted entirely to the number of steps she took each hour. This obsession negatively affected her mental and physical health, leading her to overwork her body and replace her enjoyable workouts with friends to solitary exercise aimed at meeting her step goals. She eventually decided that tracking her steps was not good for her health.
Experts caution that health apps can’t replace medical guidance.
Dr. Alison Brager, who has worked with the U.S. Army on wearable testing, points out that while these tools are useful for performance enhancement, “Trying to make clinical diagnoses off apps is a wrong approach. That’s what doctors are for.”