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Luxury consumers have secured their Equinox or Third Space gym memberships, bought their high-end supplements and invested in luxury skincare and aesthetic tweakments. Now, an ecosystem of luxury sleep brands has emerged as the young and affluent seek new ways to optimise their lives and elevate the everyday.
From sleep analytics wearables like Oura Ring and Loop earplugs to luxury sleep masks from businesses like Manta, people are investing hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to optimise their sleep, in the same way they invest in luxury fitness or skincare. It’s a new category of luxury that brands from fitness to fashion are tapping into.
Business leaders and celebrities have often bragged about needing very little sleep, often claiming to be early risers. But attitudes are changing. “Sleep deprivation is the new smoking,” says Matteo Franceschetti, co-founder and CEO of luxury sleep company Eight Sleep, pioneers of the ‘Pod’ mattress cover, which claims to regulate your temperature while you’re asleep and improve sleep quality by up to 30 per cent. “In the ’90s or ’80s, there was fitness, but it was cool to sleep three hours a night. Now it looks like you’re not taking care of yourself. Today, sleep is trending — and we are riding that wave.”
Pop culture is reflecting the shift. In December, Dakota Johnson caused online uproar when she told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) she liked to sleep 14 hours a night. In March, Sydney Sweeney told the same WSJ interviewer she could get by on just two hours, causing a further stir. Scores of analysis articles ensued, with sleep experts and young consumers debating the optimum sleep cycle on social media. On TikTok, hashtags like #sleepcycle (691.6 million views), #sleeptok (405.5 million views) have surged, while 3.1 million videos have been created with the #sleep hashtag to date.
Sleep is a luxury for busy people
So why the shift from the CEO sleep diet to sleep optimisation? “The pandemic changed everything,” says Doug Sweeny, chief marketing officer of Oura Ring, a wearable that analyses sleep quality, sleep duration, stress levels and many other metrics, accessible via a subscription app. “We realised during Covid that we really have to be in control of our own health. We couldn’t solely rely on our primary care provider or doctors, so people are taking wellness into their own hands.”
The Oura Ring costs up to $399 and subscription is $5.99 per month. Oura has raised more than $350 million in funding across three rounds and was valued at $2.55 billion in 2021. It has sold over a million rings since launching in 2013.
Celebrities have helped. In July 2022, Kim Kardashian posted a page of Oura Ring stats to her Instagram story, revealing a “sleep score” of 100. “100 per cent baby!” she captioned the post, tagging the brand. “With Kim in particular, we saw a huge uplift in traffic volume and the unique users to the site,” Sweeny says, “the business really popped.”
Shortly after, in September 2022, Oura collaborated with Gucci on a co-branded special-edition ring, retailing at $950 on Gucci channels. Gucci’s then CEO Marco Bizzarri was a self-proclaimed Oura user himself, which sparked the idea. “It opened us up to a new consumer and changed the perception of our product,” says Sweeny. “Instead of being for a biohacker, it could be for a new type of consumer… Now we sit in the luxury space for sure.” Both drops of Gucci Oura sold out. In January 2023, Oura launched a rest and recovery kit with luxury gym chain gym Equinox, including a ring cover to protect the ring from scuffing while in the gym — which also sold out — underlining the brand’s alignment with a luxury lifestyle.
Earplug brand Loop was founded in 2016 by engineers and childhood friends, Maarten Bodewes and Dimitri O, who both experienced tinnitus after a night out and couldn’t find a comfortable earplug that also looked good. They started with a focus on earplugs for events, however, during the pandemic, the company launched Loop Quiet earplugs designed for optimising sleep.
Loop has sold over seven million earplugs globally to date and closed the 2023 year with a total revenue of €126 million, an increase from €42 million in 2022, according to the brand. Now, 44 per cent of its consumers use the earplugs to sleep in. “Even as social activities have resumed to pre-pandemic levels, the emphasis on mental and physical wellness remains,” says O.
TikTok and the ritual of the everyday
Like luxury Erewhon smoothies or ‘clean girl’ athleisure, sleep-based wearables are becoming a status symbol for young customers, says Sweeny. “There is a jewellery component to the Oura Ring; it says something about you and what you care about, which is really powerful.”
Premium sleep mask company Manta Sleep was founded seven years ago and now has over a million customers, with eight-figure revenues. Manta’s USP lies in its masks’ wrap-around and blackout qualities, with adjustable foam cups, reducing pressure on the eyelid and allowing for people to sleep on their back, front or side (prices range from $70 to $143).
“We ignored Gen Z for a while, but now we’re seeing more organic content from young people on platforms like TikTok, related to sleep optimisation and our product,” says Manta marketing director James Swain. “We realised that the demographic of people interested in sleep included young women in LA, for example, rather than just people who listen to niche health podcasts.” One organic video on YouTube Shorts of a young woman comparing a high street sleep mask and a Manta mask garnered over five million views in two days.
Currently trending on TikTok is multi-use wearable Whoop, launched by Will Ahmed while he was a student at Harvard in 2012. The Whoop tracks fitness, sleep quality, hydration levels and recommended recovery time after exercise. With a considerable $239/year upfront subscription cost, it’s a luxury item; but young consumers are flocking to the brand, which provides regular coaching and advice based on their specific stats. There’s 3.1 million videos on TikTok related to “Whoop Fitness Tracker” to date.
“Whoop is experiencing some of our fastest growth ever,” says Ahmed, “we are noticing now that Whoop members are not only getting more sleep, but they are seeking new tactics to get even better sleep. In 2023 some of the most popular tactics were implementing consistent wake up times, prioritising sunlight in the morning, daylight eating (consuming all meals during daylight hours) consuming less caffeine, utilising red light therapy and more.”
Social media will continue to feed the growth of luxury sleep products, says Suzanne Scott, global associate beauty director of beauty consultancy Seen Group’s strategy arm. “There is, and I suppose there will always be, a thriving trend for voyeuristic aspirational content that documents pre-sleep and upon-waking rituals,” she says. “If TikTok has taught us anything, it’s that we’ll make a ritual out of anything and everything.”
Elevating the experience
Luxury sleep product customers used to be a niche community of so-called ‘health hackers’ (people interested in biology and health who try to find new ways to cheat the system). But the demographic is broadening, founders agree. “A good night’s sleep is luxury if you have a busy and stressful life,” says Eight Sleep co-founder Alexandra Zatarain. “Our customers are [millennials] with disposable income and they see our product as an investment. Ultimately, it is becoming a status symbol, to be able to invest in your sleep to that degree, and to give yourself the space, the time to sleep that well.”
The latest Eight Sleep model retails at €2,845 and the brand counts Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy as customers. The company has so far raised $150 million in funding, with a valuation of $500 million in 2022. It’s not yet profitable, but Eight Sleep had two “cash flow positive” quarters last year, according to Franceschetti, and is expected to continue that trend this year.
Eight Sleep follows the playbook of luxury brands, aligning with athletes and sports teams for promotion, partnering with athletes from global sports like tennis, the Tour de France and Formula One. “We think of Eight Sleep as a lifestyle,” says Zatarain. “When building the company, we don’t look at technology companies. We look at Moncler, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Rimowa. They set culture. And as more of them lean into sport, it’s a good time for us to get in.”
“Our customer is people that are sleep optimising, who want the very best, rather than a standard sleep mask,” says Manta’s Swain. “Before, we were definitely serving the health hacker person, someone who was particularly light sensitive. Now, more people are taking sleep more seriously.”
Brands will have to innovate to keep driving interest and demand in such a fast-growing area of interest and research.
“We always think two to three years ahead,” says Eight Sleep’s Franceschetti. “The idea is always to tackle more environmental factors. And so at certain points we’ll get into oxygen, light, air quality, everything, noise. So everything that can have an impact on your sleep should be optimised by our machine learning and artificial intelligence.” Eight Sleep is soon to launch a new iteration of the Pod, with yet-to-be-announced features. Manta is in early planning stages for other sleep accessories, for more holistic improvement. “We’re closely following consumer feedback and trends in the market to gauge what our next move will be,” says Swain, “we want to optimise the whole sleep experience.”
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