European Sleep Tech Startups Are Optimising Shut-eye

When it comes to sleep, consumers are prioritising quality as much as quantity.

Losing Sleep

Fuelled by a cultural movement transforming it from expendable to aspirational, sleep’s role in maintaining good mental, metabolic and physical functioning has come into sharper focus.

Yet, even despite the high toll of sleep insufficiency, collectively, we’re not sleeping well at all:

• More than half of all people globally don’t get enough sleep.
• Eight in 10 adults say they want to improve the quality of their sleep.
• One in eight Britons constantly feels tired, while ~60% Americans feel more tired than ever.

Waking up to the problem, 52% of people now consider sleep the most important method of staying healthy, and over 70% of adults have recently taken action to improve their sleep.

Selling Zzz’s

The change in mindset is supercharging a sleep economy now worth over $500B per year. Cashing in on the crisis, across Europe companies are leveraging science and technology to engineer better sleep.

• Accelerating access to therapeutics, Germany’s eaze delivers personal sleep therapy, from establishing routines to building healthy sleep habits, while Dreem Health’s sleep clinic combines virtual consultations with at-home delivery of devices and prescriptions.
• Detecting signs of sleep apnoea via smart devices worn on the skin, the UK’s Acurable and Belgium’s Sunrise both landing funding  to scale their solutions globally.
• Backed by neuroscience, a collaboration between Germany’s Endel and Universal Music Group is creating personalised soundscapes for optimised sleep.
• London-based sleep and mindfulness app Moshi is utilising science-backed meditations and curated bedtime stories to help children nod off.

Globally, Israel’s X-trodes ($10.2M) and Vietnam’s Earable ($8.7M) recently raised for sleep-tracking headbands, while Oura tightened its sleep staging algorithm.

Meanwhile, US smart mattress makers Eight Sleep, Bryte, and Sleep Number are all speeding development of new sensors and applications.

And, as science continues to advance, experts are already working on further optimising sleep, with B2B coaching platform BetterUp acquiring AI sleep coach Crescent, brands like Dormio and Prophetic AI hijacking dreams, and countless supplement makers formulating sleep-inducing remedies.

Looking ahead: The need for more – and better – sleep is legitimate. But while high-tech products and services have established a lucrative market helping those with access optimise their time under the covers, they risk ignoring the basics. For many, structural sleep inequalities like socioeconomic stress or environmental disadvantage are what’s keeping them up at night – and that won’t be solved by an app or melatonin pill.