Staying up the night at the latest, eating the most health care products, and young people with insomnia have spawned a hundred billion sleep economy

The source of this article: Times Finance Author: Intern Zheng Liying

Image credit: Pexels

"Stay up the night at the latest, put on the most expensive mask, eat the most health products." Although this sounds like a joke, for Lolo, a post-95 girl who has been plagued by insomnia for 5 years, this is the norm of her life.

According to the "2021 White Paper on Exercise and Sleep" released by the Chinese Sleep Research Association, more than 300 million people in the mainland currently have sleep disorders. And "not sleeping well" has gradually become a common pain point for young people. In March 2022, the "2022 Chinese National Healthy Sleep White Paper" jointly released by the Chinese Sleep Research Association and other institutions showed that 44% of 19-25-year-old young people stayed up late to zero, and 19-35-year-old young adults were the age group with high incidence of sleep problems, and the insomnia rate accounted for 30% of the total number.

Young people who are plagued by sleep disorders have also become the main consumer of health care products. According to the "China Better Life Survey" released on May 4, this year, in the consumption list of 18-35-year-old young people, tourism, education and training and health care ranked in the top three, of which 18-35 years old people who consumed health care accounted for 29.80% of the total, and young people have become a force that cannot be ignored in the health product market.

The prevalence of sleep disorders has spawned a market of 100 billion. In order to save sleep, the sleep aid market has quietly opened. Ai Media Consulting expects that the size of China's sleep economy market will exceed 400 billion yuan in 2021. More and more enterprises have begun to enter the "blue ocean" of sleep assistance. In addition to common sleep-aiding health products such as melatonin, many listed pharmaceutical or food companies have also invested in the research and development of sleep aids, anti-anxiety and other related drugs.

20 days a month when you can't sleep, "open your eyes until dawn"

Lolo now works for an internet company, and problems such as insomnia and difficulty falling asleep have caused her to often be mentally ill during the day.

"Our company goes to work at 8:30 and meets early at nine, but at the morning meeting, as long as I don't call me, I will lose my mind." Lolo told Times Finance.

Because the university is not in the usual place of residence, getting rid of the "control" of his parents, Lolo completely "let go of himself" during college, and often chases the stars until two or three o'clock in the morning during his freshman and sophomore years, and over time forms a regular biological clock. Because of the pressure of work and school, she once forced herself to go to bed early in her junior year, but it always did not work.

"The worst time was in my senior year, because the graduation thesis and the internship were going on at the same time, the internship workload was particularly large, the time for the thesis was also very rushed, and I also had a little perfectionism myself, which led to a sharp increase in my stress, and I could not sleep for 20 days a month. I knew I had to go to bed early, but I just couldn't sleep. As soon as I close my eyes and think about the bad outcome of some things in the future, my whole mentality collapses. Lolo told Times Finance, "I felt that time was passing at an alarming speed, desperate but helpless, and opened my eyes all night to see the sun rise." ”

Until then, Lolo had attributed "poor sleep" to the biological clock, and it wasn't until the night of that night that she realized that she had lost sleep. After that night, her insomnia became more and more pronounced, and the dual pressures of insomnia and work caused her to suffer from moderate depression.

"Sometimes I wonder if I will die suddenly the next day, and then I will force myself to sleep, and I will still open my eyes until dawn."

Insomnia deprives Lolo of his life of vitality. "The most intuitive feeling is that when I go to work, I am not concentrated, like an 'empty shell', and my temperament is particularly poor, and my girlfriend said that I am ten years old at once, and I can't save the makeup."

In fact, there are many young people like Lolo who have insomnia. According to the "2021 China Sleep Economy Industry Research Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by Ai Media Consulting, 74.3% of the people with insomnia problems are young people aged 22-40.

From the perspective of the causes of sleep problems, "stress" is a common reason for poor sleep at all ages, which is particularly prominent in the youth group - every two young people who do not sleep well have a "stress mountain". Guo Xiheng, director of the China Sleep Research Association, said that the excessive pressure of this group is mainly related to study and work.

"It may be more appropriate to say that it is anxiety, and it is not clear what you want to do. The pressure on the development of graduation life, coupled with the impact of the epidemic, many things cannot be carried out normally, which is very troublesome. A senior student at a university in Guangdong told Times Finance.

The sleep market has great potential, and the consumer body shows a trend of rejuvenation

Huge market potential has been released, and enterprises entering the sleep field have shown explosive growth. On the Tianyancha APP, a search with "sleep" as the keyword shows that there are currently more than 7,000 sleep-related enterprises in the mainland, of which about 42% of the enterprises were established within the past 5 years, and the registration of sleep-related enterprises showed an overall upward trend.

Sleep products have been developed in many fields such as medical and health products, technology products, food and beverages, and have a rich product category, including melatonin, steam eye masks, noise-canceling earplugs, sleep APP, etc.

As young people become a high incidence of sleep problems, the main consumers of the sleep economy also show a trend of rejuvenation. According to the "Report" released by Ai Media Consulting, 74.3% of young people aged 22-40 are in the population with insomnia problems. The proportion of people aged 22-40 who have purchased sleep aids is 84.3%, while the proportion of people aged 26-40 who have purchased sleep supplements is 66.3%.

3 years ago, Wu Dan in 92 was hit hard by job transfers and love dilemmas, and fell into a long period of insomnia. By reading recommended posts on Xiaohongshu and Weibo, she purchased melatonin, noise-canceling earplugs, and a blindfold. "Eat 1-2 melatonins when you have insomnia, sleepiness comes up immediately, wear eye masks and earplugs, no one affects, sleep soundly."

Melatonin is one of the hormones secreted by the pineal gland of the brain, secreted with a pronounced circadian rhythm, suppressed during the day, active secretion at night, eating an appropriate amount of melatonin before going to bed helps to fall asleep. However, although sleep supplements such as melatonin can improve insomnia to a certain extent, they will cause dependence and side effects on the body after taking it for a long time.

"There are many brands of melatonin on the market, and it is best for everyone to choose according to their physical condition. However, you cannot always rely on melatonin, because long-term use may cause symptoms of dizziness and nausea, resulting in dependence. Yuan Li, a psychiatrist at a hospital in Guangzhou, told Times Finance.

In addition to sleep aids, many insomniacs mainly rely on drug control to alleviate the condition. Among them, sedative hypnotics and anxiolytics are the two most important drugs. Sedative hypnotics are drugs that stabilize mood or promote and maintain physiological sleep by inhibiting the central nervous system, while anxiolytics often have the effect of treating insomnia at the same time.

According to the statistics of medical economic newspaper, in 2021, the sales of hypnosis/sedative drugs in sample hospitals were 1.641 billion yuan, and the amount of drugs purchased by public hospitals nationwide was 5.481 billion yuan. The data of the past 5 years shows that the sales of sample hospitals reached the maximum in 2021, an increase of 8.46% year-on-year. It can also be seen from the average unit price that from 2017 to 2021, the unit price has changed from 4.83 yuan to 5.67 yuan, and the price has increased year by year. A total of 15 hypnotic/sedative drugs were sold in the sample hospitals, with dexmedetomidine, midazolam and zolpidem ranking in the top three, and the total sales of these three varieties of sample hospitals exceeded 1.434 billion yuan, accounting for 87.41% of the sales of this type.

Among them, the sales amount of dexmedetomidine injection developed by Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical for general anesthesia for surgical intubation for general anesthesia was 1.015 billion yuan in 2021, accounting for 61.85% of the sales amount of hypnosis/sedative drugs in the sample hospitals.

In terms of anti-anxiety drugs, in 2021, the sales of anti-anxiety drugs in the sample hospitals were 322 million yuan, and the amount of drugs purchased by public hospitals nationwide was 1.075 billion yuan. Seven anxiolytics were sold in the sample hospitals, with tanduspirone, oxazepam and lorazepam in the top three. Among them, alprazolam, also known as "jialadine" or "jiajing stable", is characterized by the best anxiolytic effect in benzodiazepines, especially for anxiety insomnia and early awakening.

In addition to hypnotic/sedatives and anxiolytics, drugs such as vitamin B1 and tranquilizing brain fluid are also commonly used drugs for relieving and treating insomnia in insomnia groups.

"There are many choices on the market at present, and there are many recommended posts, it is recommended that you do not blindly buy products with recommended posts, because everyone's physique is different, and it may lead to physical changes due to misuse or multiple medications." If necessary, it is necessary to seek medical treatment in time, review it regularly, and the doctor will adjust the dosage appropriately according to the patient's situation. Yuan Li told Times Finance.

(At the request of the interviewee, Luo Luo, Mian Mian, Wu Dan, and Yuan Li are pseudonyms)