I am impressed every night that I cannot sleep.
"Drowsiness is getting worse, but I still can't fall asleep after hanging up."
One day in February of this year, I played a few games before going to bed and couldn’t fall asleep. After a while, she started chatting with her friend Lian Mai, and with her friend's calm voice, Cancan finally became a little sleepy. "I thought I would fall asleep soon, but my brain got excited again, thinking about things."
Nowadays, there are many young people with sleep problems. There are insomnia caused by irregular work and rest like Cancan, and insomnia caused by anxiety due to work, study, and life pressure. According to the survey results published by the Chinese Sleep Research Association, more than 300 million Chinese people have sleep disorders, and based on another 450 million sample sleep report, "post-90s" account for 36.7% of the total insomnia population.
"Post-90s" gradually started to work, in the office during the day at "996", and went home in bed at night, either staying up late with social media revenge, or being alone in distress at work and insomnia . With round eyes open during the night of insomnia, I always feel that the mattress is uncomfortable and the quilt is not soft. I am already very tired, but I can’t fall asleep...
There is a market." Young people suffering from sleep problems inadvertently formed a huge "sleep aid" market.And gave birth to a series of products, but how effective are they?
Melatonin that is gradually being abandoned
Young people desperately choose melatonin.
was originally the melatonin recommended by the staff of the pharmacy to Xiao Xu, "I started to have mild insomnia symptoms, which is quite useful."
, actually many years ago. Melanin once appeared in our country as a health product. The main ingredient of the well-known "Melatonin" is melatonin, but at that time few companies used melatonin to produce health products that fight insomnia.
As sleep problems become more and more common, China's melatonin raw material industry is gradually in short supply.
In 2018, China's melatonin raw material demand was 540 tons, while the market supply scale was only 4.88 million yuan. Part of the reason for the limited production capacity of melatonin is that since 2016, the country has increased its environmental protection efforts, and some companies that do not meet the standards have gradually withdrawn, and the operating rate of the remaining companies has also been greatly restricted, resulting in an overall reduction in the industry's supply capacity.
At present, the main domestic products of melatonin are , By-Health, Xianle Health and other health care products companies. In addition, pharmaceutical companies such as North China Pharmaceuticals and HannStar Pharmaceuticals Melatonin is produced as a marginal product.
An industry analysis team once pointed out thatThe contradiction between the supply and demand of melatonin raw materials will deepen. The reason for this judgment is that the environmental protection supervision of the chemical industry will be further strengthened in the future, the production of melatonin raw materials cannot be increased in a short time, and the demand for health products such as melatonin is increasing.
Many people with insomnia initially choose to take melatonin to resist insomnia｜Vision China
However, the problem of taking melatonin gradually appears as the demand increases.
"I used a brand of melatonin in the United States. After eating it, I started to have nightmares." At first, Cancan also took melatonin to fight insomnia, but the effect was not good. "Later, I stopped taking it. After adjusting my schedule, my sleep is pretty good now."
Xiao Xu also said: "Later, my insomnia symptoms gradually deepened, and melatonin began to no longer work."
The above is an amine hormone produced by the pineal gland in the human body. Its secretion helps to adjust people’s sleep state and sleep time. Therefore, many treatments for insomnia products use it as the main ingredient, but its side effects are also Not to be ignored.
Long-term high-dose melatonin can cause adverse reactions such as hypothermia, dizziness, headaches, etc. Compared with modern new insomnia drugs, the use of melatonin in the medical field is very cautious. Different countries have different dosage standards for melatonin. In China, it is allowed to be used as a health food. The recommended daily dosage range is 1-3mg. However, most melatonin health products sold on e-commerce platforms contain 3-10 mg of melatonin.Far exceeds the recommended dosage. In the European Union, melatonin is not allowed to be used as a food and is a prescription drug.
"Later, I started to drink Chinese medicine for conditioning, and my sleep gradually improved." After taking melatonin for more than half a year, Xiao Xu finally gave up melatonin.
is just a "normal" drink
In the huge sleep market, many industries naturally want to get a share.
"Sleep White Paper" predicts that the market size of my country’s sleep industry will reach more than 400 billion yuan by the end of this year and will exceed one trillion yuan by 2030. In addition to health products containing melatonin, in recent years "Sleep Food" has also begun to target the sleep market.
Unlike melatonin health products, most of the effective sleep aid ingredients in "sleep aid foods" are γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA). GABA is an important inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, which can inhibit nerve excitation transmission, calm the brain, reduce anxiety, and achieve the effect of relieving stress and promoting sleep.
Compared with melatonin, GABA is safer and does not cause dependence. In the national management of food raw materials, GABA is classified as a new resource food raw material, which can be used in ordinary foods other than infant food.
In terms of product raw materials and technology, "sleep aid foods" mostly follow the theory of "medicine and food homology" in traditional Chinese medicine. The γ-aminobutyric acid extracted from rice, beans, kelp and other foods is derived from Span12span theanine is extracted from tea,Adding other ingredients such as jujube seed in the field of traditional Chinese medicine, pay more attention to the natural and healthy raw materials.
In 2016, Coca-Cola Japan launched a functional drink-Glaceau Sleep Water. Each bottle contains 200mg of L-theanine, which can relax before going to bed and relieve fatigue and sleepiness after getting up. effect.
Subsequently, and Mengniu also launched their own sleep aids. Want Want Group has launched a drink called "Mengmengshui" for people with insomnia. It also uses L-theanine as its selling point and claims to adopt a low-sugar, zero-fat, and melatonin-free formula. Mengniu Group has developed a healthy milk that can improve the sleep quality of Chinese people-Mengniu Good Night.
In September 2020, BUFF X sleep jelly, which focuses on stress relief and sleep aid, was launched. The founder team of BUFF X all have ByteDance experience. At the beginning of its establishment, it was led by Sequoia China, and Meihua Ventures followed up with the investment of tens of millions of angel rounds of financing.
Major beverage manufacturers have begun to rush to the sleep aid market, and related products are emerging in endlessly.
Although the major manufacturers are trying to seize new markets one after another, many people think that "sleeping drinks" and "sleeping jelly" are more like a gimmick.
"I have never heard of sleep aids before." Xiao Xu believes that sleep aids are drinks after all, and it is unlikely that they will really solve the problem of insomnia.
Some people might mistakenly think that sleep aids are energy drinks.However, according to the "General Principles of Beverages", functional drinks are approved by the relevant state departments and can be claimed to have specific health-care functions. The "blue hat" is a sign that has passed the health food review, but the sleep aids currently on the market do not carry the "blue hat" sign, so they are just ordinary drinks.
In the past two years, there has been a good night water evaluation wind in China. The evaluation results of the up masters at station B are basically the same: it is useless.
Correspondingly, the sales of these sleep aids are not as high as imagined.
The function of "sleeping aids" is more of a psychological suggestion. It helps insomniacs improve their sleep problems through psychological comfort. In fact, "sleeping drinks" have no direct effect on sleep problems.
GABA and theanine do have the effect of soothing mood and relieving stress, but a good mood does not guarantee a good sleep. Similarly, the huge market size does not guarantee a good future for "sleep aid food".
Smart sleep aid products far in the future
In addition to diet, there are many hardware manufacturers trying to enter the sleep aid market from sleep monitoring.
According to reports, Samsung Electronics, , Nokia , and Apple have all entered this field through acquisitions. For example, Nokia announced the acquisition of French health equipment manufacturer Withings.Apple acquired the Finnish sleep monitoring manufacturer Beddit and so on.
In 2017, Apple acquired Beddi. Not long ago, according to foreign media reports, Apple has applied for a patent for a very futuristic mattress sensor. In the patent document, Apple claims that it is developing a "bed tactile device" that can monitor where people are sleeping and whether they are snoring by inserting the device into a mattress. If the device is connected to the user’s iPhone, the sensor can also act as a silent alarm clock, waking people up at a predetermined time by gently moving them.
Apple is developing a mattress sensor to help sleep.
Recently, the media reported a sleep aid pillow named "Nice Pillow" launched by "Xiaomi Youpin". The product is still in the R&D and design stage. It is expected to use EEG AIR technology. A total of 56 sets of brainwave sensors form a brainwave acquisition network, which can capture and collect human brainwave signals in the air, and analyze these brainwaves. . After that, magnetic pulses are used to produce a resonance effect with the brain waves, thereby adjusting the brain waves to below 4 Hz, so as to adjust the human brain waves to a deep sleep state.
But these are just ideas, no products are available yet.
Sleep monitoring devices that have entered the consumer market still have their specific functions to be discussed.
First of all, the way you wear it will affect your sleep status. When performing sleep monitoring, existing products usually require monitoring equipment and sensors to be worn on the sleeper’s body.Such as watches, bracelets, wired earphones, wireless earphones, etc., which sometimes cause different degrees of discomfort to sleepers.
Secondly, a study by the North Dakota Sleep Center research team shows that data from sleep monitoring devices will also affect the user's subsequent sleep. This is because sometimes people with insomnia will be more anxious looking at their sleep data, which will lead to bad psychological cues.
However, manufacturers believe that these are avoidable errors. With the continuous improvement and optimization of algorithms and technologies, smart sleep monitoring equipment will become an important component in the future AI applications, mobile health and other fields section.
Maybe for people who are suffering from insomnia, all of the above may "treat the symptoms but not the root cause." The final solution may be to slide the phone's hand, staring at the screen, and anxiety. heart of.
author: fish three short-tailed bird
Source: Vision China
Editor: Jingyu
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