Big sleep update lands on Whoop ahead of May 8 teaser

Whoop’s latest update puts a spotlight on sleep. A revamped Sleep Performance metric is now rolling out, and it’s built around four core categories designed to better reflect the quality of your nightly rest. The company has also teased a big announcement for May 8th, 10AM Eastern Time.

Sleep score now has more depth

In a Tweet on X, Will Ahmed, Whoop’s CEO, says the original sleep score wasn’t telling the whole story. The total hours you logged didn’t always line up with how rested you felt the next morning. That disconnect pushed the company to rethink how it scores your nights. With years of member feedback and an immense data pool, they’ve overhauled the system from the ground up.

The updated Sleep Performance metric now includes four components: Hours vs. Needed, Sleep Consistency, Sleep Efficiency, and Sleep Stress. The goal is to give a more complete picture of recovery, so that users aren’t left guessing why they feel groggy after eight hours or refreshed after six.

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This update replaces the old sleep score, which used just Hours vs. Need. That setup didn’t always explain why you might still feel off the next day. Since sleep plays such a key role in recovery, and recovery sits at the center of what Whoop is built around, these are important changes.

Breaking down the four new sleep metrics

Sleep Stress is the most noticeable addition. It shows how much of your sleep was spent in a high stress state. Whoop tracks this by looking at heart rate variability, respiratory rate, and other physiological markers that normally stay steady while you sleep. Spikes in those signals can indicate something is off. That might be alcohol, illness, late meals, or anything else your body sees as a disruption. Even if you get plenty of hours, if they’re packed with stress, your recovery will suffer.

Hours vs. Needed is the one metric that hasn’t changed much. It still shows how much sleep you got compared to how much you needed. Your sleep need updates daily based on your strain, sleep debt, and even naps. There’s a strong link between intense exercise and increased sleep requirements. The harder you push yourself, the more time your body needs to recover, and most of that process happens during Slow Wave Sleep. That makes this metric just as important as ever.

Sleep Consistency looks at how closely your sleep and wake times align from day to day. It uses a four-day rolling average to identify patterns. This is key for circadian rhythm health, which influences everything from hormone release to metabolism to immune function. People often focus on how long they sleep, but when they sleep can matter even more.

Sleep Efficiency is about how much of your time in bed is actually spent asleep. It highlights fragmented sleep, which happens when you wake up multiple times or take a long time to fall asleep again. Even if you’re logging eight hours in bed, if that time is broken up, the recovery benefits are going to be weaker. Whoop suggests treating low efficiency scores as a sign to check your environment. A cool, dark, and quiet room can make a noticeable difference.

UI changes and a big tease

Alongside the sleep overhaul, the app’s home screen is also getting reworked. So you may notice some change there. All of this is leading up to a major announcement. Whoop is teasing this will happen on May 8 at 10am ET.

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