I am going to make a bold prediction here: 2014 will be the year of sleep. Everybody who was into one of these fad diets or fad workout plans (you know the crossfits, paleo diets, cleanses, detoxes, bootcamp pilates, etc) in 2010-2013 will jump on the sleep bandwagon. It is going to be a humblebrag type of situation whereby people talk about not how much sleep they got, but how effective it was. 2014 will be about people learning to sleep more effectively and soundly.
There are tons of devices on the market now, and dozens more rolling out at CES this week that help individuals track their sleep, get to sleep, or sleep better. Sleep aids are a multi-billion $ business already, primarily in over the counter and prescription medicines. However, I think we’ll see people looking for non-chemical solutions to sleep.
Someone will put out a study this year touting the effects on productivity of “super” sleep. Buzzfeed and half a dozen other publications will then proceed to chop the details up into a list along the lines of “10 ways to get better sleep” and that will go viral.
So here are the things to look for:
- Sleep scores (e.g. “OMG I feel great, I got a score of 93 last night. Slept 6 hours”)
- Premium sleep mattresses and accessories (think Tempurpedic, but more complex)
- More wristbands tracking sleep
- More fancy alarm clocks or night stand devices to track
- Web apps to share/compare sleep data
- Mobile apps grow in this area too (likely connected to all of the above)
- Rise of over the counter neutraceuticals (unregulated herbal meds) promoting sleep
- Rise of the sleep category like dream-water (think Monster:Red Bull, XYZ:Dream Water)
Admittedly, I have tried using sleep cycle and a couple other apps, but that’s the extent of it. I am heavily leaning towards getting a Jawbone UP24 band to passively track my sleep and other activities. Peter Drucker was famous for his quote “If you can measure it, you can manage it.”
What do you think of this trend prediction?