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| The Basics | The price of a good nights sleep
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Restless Americans are spending billions on pills, pillows, mattresses and therapies. Here's what all this sleep medicine can cost -- and 10 free ways to get some rest.
By Melinda Fulmer
Bill Baka has tried just about everything for his insomnia. The Marysville, Calif., electrical engineer has taken prescription sleep aids, herbs, supplements, even Xanax in his quest for more sleep. Hes tried earplugs, blackout curtains and therapy.
Tens of thousands of dollars later, 57-year-old Baka is getting a full nights sleep -- once every three days.
For the estimated 70 million people with sleep problems, it seems no price is too high for a good nights slumber. Sales of prescription sleep aids are expected to almost double to $4.3 billion in 2010 from $2.4 billion last year, according to Natexis Bleichroeder analyst Jon LeCroy, as more prescriptions are issued for new and more expensive drugs.
Sleep centers, which diagnose the 80 separate sleep disorders, are averaging a 10-week wait for appointments, said Richard Gelula, chief executive officer of the National Sleep Foundation, as more baby boomers are struggling with slumber. And purveyors of other sleep-related products, including dietary supplements, herbs, pillows and sound machines -- even biofeedback and sleep-inducing music -- are reporting booming sales as an overstimulated generation tries to solve its sleep problems.
The industry of sleep
Theres a whole market of over-the-counter things, an industry of sleep, springing up, said Rafael Pelayo, assistant professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, who treats patients at Stanford's sleep disorders clinic.
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According to the 2005 National Sleep Foundations Sleep in America poll, only 49% of the 1,506 Americans surveyed said they got a good nights sleep most nights. Another 26% said they only got good sleep a few times a month or less.
While many consumers are simply taking one of the name-brand sleep aids, such as Ambien, Lunesta or Sonata, to nod off, others cant get their doctor to even discuss the problem, Pelayo said. Sleep medicine is a new specialty, and very few doctors have training in the area. When a patient says, Im not sleeping well,' the doctor says, Hey, I dont sleep that well, either,'" Pelayo said. | The cost of sleep | One months supply Ambien CR 12.5 mg (30-day supply): $102.99 (usually covered by insurance)
Sleep yoga DVD: $24.95
Natures Benefit Sleep Naturally supplement (60 capsules): $19.99
Thera-P Anti-Snoring Pillow: $69.95
Lavender-and-flax-filled sleep mask: $25
Cognitive behavioral therapy: $455 (7 group sessions usually covered by insurance)
Online insomnia self-help (two months): $39.95
King-size Sleep Number 9000 Bed: $4,429.97
Medical treatment for sleep apnea: $10,000 (usually covered by insurance)
Marpac 980 SleepMate White Noise Machine: $56.95 |
This gap in treatment is creating a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs like Robert deStefano, president and co-founder of Sleep Garden, an upstart distributor of holistic sleep treatments. A former ad man and chronic insomniac, he founded Sleep Garden last year, to sell drowsy music, sleep-inducing yoga DVDs and special zMovies to lull people to sleep. We wanted to provide something that was an alternative to over-the-counter sleeping pills, deStefano said. If you have insomnia, you do not need to medicate. You simply need to recalibrate.
The zYoga video guides pajama-clad exercisers through a series of downward dogs, forward bends and twists to relax the mind and body in the minutes before going to bed. We have great rituals of waking up, deStefano said, including having that cup of coffee and reading the morning paper. But few people, he said, carve out some time after the workday to unwind.
Short excerpts of the companys zMovies, with relaxing nature images and music, have been picked up by American Airlines as in-flight entertainment and by the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C., as a sleep channel for hotel guests.
An aging population, with more aches and pains, is also boosting sales of expensive mattresses made of shape-conforming Tempur-Pedic foam and expensive air mattresses such as Select Comforts Sleep Number Bed, which can run $5,000 for a king-size bed. Indeed, on the strength of these new types of mattresses, the number of mattress sets over the $1,000 price level increased to 21.4% last year, up from 14.5% four years earlier, according to the International Sleep Products Association.
Its just skyrocketing, said Lori Lawson, owner of four Back Shop & Sleep Centers in the San Francisco Bay area, of her Tempur-Pedic sales. Even as Tempur-Pedic has added more and more distributors to sell the mattresses, Lawson said, her sales have increased. Lawson, who suffered a back injury more than a decade ago, swears by her own Tempur-Pedic bed, purchased in 1993. Its like an old tennis shoe, she said, in the way it molds to her body.
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