In today’s wellness-obsessed culture, sleep has evolved from necessity to status symbol. In response, beauty brands are waking up to a lucrative opportunity: products and tools that purport to help people sleep better, longer and deeper.
“Sleep is a very exciting territory for us,” says Jennifer Palmer, Estée Lauder’s SVP of global skincare product development and marketing. “We want to be the leaders and the experts in all things night. We want to have all the solutions that our consumers seek.” Earlier this year, Estée Lauder appointed neuroscientist and sleep expert Dr Matthew Walker as its first global sleep science advisor.
Estée Lauder, which launched its Advanced Night Repair creams 40 years ago, is updating the hero line to emphasise its works-while-you-sleep functionality. Vichy has moved beyond the traditional hydrating night cream with its Mineral 89 Moisture Recovery offering (launched in February), and used melatonin, the clinically-proven and trending ingredient known to help regulate the skin’s circadian rhythm, as a primary ingredient within the formulation.
From temperature-regulating mattress covers to high-tech wearables, products that promise to improve your sleep are booming.
Whereas personal care company Croda Beauty introduced Zenakine in April, a biotech-based cosmetic ingredient targeted for night-time skincare and designed to improve the physical signs of skin fatigue, stimulate skin cell messengers to combat cortisol (stress) damage and influence skin circadian genes as consumers sleep.
In retail, Ulta Beauty has expanded its sleep shelf with offerings such as evening supplements by Ritual and Lemme Sleep, wellness patches by The Good Patch, and Nodpod weighted blankets. While AG1 moves beyond functional greens powder to sleep supplements. Luxury hotels and gyms, including Six Senses and Equinox, offer blackout rituals, sleep coaching and in-room breathwork menus. On the tech front, Oura and Apple have upgraded their sleep-tracking capabilities to support circadian alignment and deep-sleep analysis. Sales of sleep-encouraging pillow sprays are up 81 per cent in 2025, according to Clearpay. On Pinterest, searches for “going to sleep” routines have jumped 360 per cent this year compared with 2024.
“As consumers redefine health, the sleep economy stands to benefit dramatically, with consumers shifting from reactive to proactive wellness,” says Matthew Oster, head of health, beauty and hygiene insights at Euromonitor.
Already, management consultancy McKinsey forecasts sleep wearables will reach $32 billion by 2026, nearly triple their 2019 value of $11 billion. Sleep aids reached $4.8 billion in global sales in 2024, up from $3.4 billion in 2019, according to Euromonitor. This shift means big growth potential for brands that can find new ways to sell good sleep, across skincare, wellness and tech. Consumers want better sleep, so now brands are racing to turn that aspiration into a tangible, shoppable reality.
As the sleep market goes into overdrive, experts warn that beauty brands must proceed with scientific rigour, not superficial marketing. “Products need to have proven efficacy and deep approaches to meet consumers’ disparate sleep needs and navigate the evolving marketplace,” says Oster. The risk of overpromising looms large. Walker agrees: “It’s the time for a brand to start to say, ‘Let’s do the real hard science and ask what we’re doing to improve the skin’s function overnight because not many brands are doing it.’”
In pursuit of that goal, alongside appointing Walker, Estée Lauder has continued to expand its clinical research into what it calls “sleep science”, focusing on the biological behaviours of skin during sleep. At this year’s closed-door dermatology conference, titled Scale, the brand debuted findings that the visible effects of poor sleep on skin can actually be reversed. The brand patented a peptide called tripeptide-32 that claims to help resync the skin’s circadian rhythm.
The peptide’s usage demonstrated a 51 per cent increase in collagen production, prompting an increase in elastin and a reduction in fine lines (over eight weeks of testing), while new testing on the further developed Advanced Night Repair serum reported improvements across skin tone (up 32 per cent after eight weeks), radiance (up 24 per cent increase) and sallowness (down 42 per cent). The latest Advanced Night Repair Eye Lift + Sculpt serum is set to launch this summer, with more products in the franchise to follow.
“With all this research, learning and history, we’re now armed with the knowledge so that we can move quickly and have an authority to drive us,” says Palmer.
Experts say that anchoring marketing in clinically backed and proven data, like Estée Lauder, can help avoid pitfalls, alongside aligning with academic and medical experts.
No7 has supported launches with peer-reviewed white papers and clinical testing to help reformulate their sleep-focused serums and creams, including the No7 Night Complex and Pre-Sleep Fragrance, using antioxidants and humectants (supercharged moisturising ingredients) to improve product efficacy. More recently, in March 2024, Therabody enlisted a medical advisory board to validate their sleep-enhancing research into technologies such as the Therabody Sleep Mask and Smart Goggles, each designed to optimise sleep.
The brands that will win in the sleep economy will be those that are science based with storytelling, delivering performance and not just promise. “In the sleep space, vague or unrealistic claims just don’t land. What matters now is credibility and authenticity,” says Clearpay consumer insights psychologist Shakaila Forbes-Bell. “Consumers want to see transparency, evidence and a genuine understanding of their needs.” In an age of sceptical consumers and dupe-saturated markets, efficacy, transparency and expert validation aren’t just ‘nice to haves’; they’re the new standard for trust and traction.
The next sleep frontier
Walker believes we’re only just scratching the surface. The next wave of sleep innovation will hinge on personalisation, he says, particularly the link between individuals’ physical makeup, sleep patterns and product formulations. “We’re going to get to personalised sleep skincare or personalised sleep medicine, where everything is going towards consumers’ unique systems,” he explains.
This vision is nascent, as brands have struggled to move product personalisation beyond general skin and complexion analyses.
Wearables present another under-tapped opportunity. “From advanced wearables tracking sleep stages to artificial intelligence-driven apps tailoring wind-down routines, we’ll see more demand for tech that meets people where they are — both physiologically and emotionally,” Forbes-Bell notes. Walker agrees. “Wearables in the sleep space do two out of four things well,” he says. “They sense your data accurately and they report on the data, but they don’t tell consumers what it means — and more importantly, what they need to do about it.”
People can now monitor everything from their glucose levels to their sleep cycles at home, with implications for how they might shop for skincare and beauty supplements.
Then, there will be guided interpretation. Devices that can offer feedback on sleep hygiene and integrate skincare or supplement routines will likely prove powerful. “If a brand can prove that they can improve sleeping patterns or improve the skin’s appearance overnight, consumers will be motivated,” continues Walker.
Natural ingredients will also have space to evolve. Dr Georgina Williams, consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon and founder of Montrose Clinic London, predicts that innovation will move beyond conventional solutions like melatonin to embrace a broader and more holistic approach, emphasising natural, non-habit-forming ingredients. “Brands such as Cuddle Sleep Health exemplify this shift with a focus on natural ingredients using magnesium without melatonin,” Williams says. (Magnesium plays a crucial role in nervous system regulation and muscle relaxation, whereas melatonin directly influences the sleep cycle.)
Mushroom-derived products are also gaining traction, which are believed to promote restorative sleep through adaptogenic and neuroprotective properties, she adds. This wave of ingredients signals a broader trend towards personalised, biology-friendly sleep solutions that prioritise long-term wellness over short-term sedation, positioning them at the forefront of sleep heath’s next frontier.
Beyond skincare, Walker also sees opportunities in adaptive night-time clothing and advanced sleep-supporting bedding, where fashion, home and function converge to serve a new kind of consumer demand.
As sleep becomes a symbol of status, longevity and performance, the bedtime economy is emerging as a multi-billion-dollar playground with beauty brands now investing in science, personalisation and clinical credibility. “People are looking for real, visible results. They don’t want gimmicks, they don’t want fads,” says Palmer.
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