Can A Cure For Insomnia Really Be Purchased?
Men's Health UK|November 2016

As lives grow more frantic and sleep becomes an increasingly sought-after commodity, big money is being made by monitoring our restlessness. But is the burgeoning shuteye business simply keeping us awake? Men’s Health gets its head down to find out if the cure for your insomnia can really be purchased.

Mark Rice-Oxley
Can A Cure For Insomnia Really Be Purchased?

Can’t sleep? No, me neither. I know what it’s like, lying there hour after hour as you gravitate ever closer to tomorrow. To start with, there is hope: maybe this night will be different; maybe you’ll drift off in the deliciously early hours before midnight. Seventeen glances at the clock later and you know it’s not going to happen. Outside the traffic has almost stopped. There’s a pulse in your stomach and your heart seems to have taken up residence in your throat. The clock relays its hideous messages: 2:47, 3:13, 4:09. As your sleeplessness deepens your mind becomes stuck on a massive feedback loop, insomnia feeding anxiety, aggravating insomnia, feeding anxiety…

Tonight – according to the most recent Great British Sleep Survey – this situation will play out in 23 million bedrooms across the UK. That amounts to a bleary-eyed 36% of the population living with insomnia. It’s a knackering prospect. But for entrepreneurial trendspotters, it’s also a burgeoning business opportunity. From smart pillows to sleep trackers, apnea devices and medications, the sleep industry is a fast-growing sector, with a predicted global worth of $80bn by 2020. To put this into perspective, coffee – the world’s most sought after commodity bar oil – is worth $100bn.

This story is from the November 2016 edition of Men's Health UK.

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This story is from the November 2016 edition of Men's Health UK.

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