Sleep business booming for Americans looking for good night's rest
1. Sleep business booming for Americans looking for good
night's rest
The CDC says up to 70 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders and calls insufficient sleep a
public health epidemic. From new mattresses to sleep spas, consumers are emptying their wallets to
try and get better night's rest, reports CBS News correspondent Gigi Stone Woods.
The Yelo Spa is a place where you can pay to sleep. A nap costs $1 a minute for up to 40 minutes in
your own private chamber. You control the light color and intensity and an artificial sunrise wakes
you up -- more gently than an alarm clock.
Owner Nicolas Ronco doesn't find it odd that people are paying for naps.
"I'm always intrigued, to be honest with you, by this question, because everybody pays for sleep,"
Ronco said. "If you have a mortgage on your apartment, you pay for sleep. If you're renting your
apartment, you pay for sleep. If you go into a hotel room, you pay for sleep."
It's all part of a booming industrial complex known as the sleep assistance industry, with estimated
revenues of at least $32 billion a year.
There are temperature-controlled pillows, high-tech gadgets that track your sleep cycle and
mattresses that can cost more than $100,000 -- stuffed with genuine horsehair to help keep sleepers
cool and dry.
Manhattan's Benjamin Hotel has a dedicated sleep program complete with a sleep concierge and
sleep consultant.
"You'll wake up refreshed simply because the bedrooms are designed with the best science
available," Cornell University research scientist Rebecca Robbins said.
She said while many Americans don't believe so, a perfect night's sleep is within their reach.
"Seventy percent of Americans are sleep deprived, but we don't have to be," Robbins said.
The hotel offers a sleep menu with 10 different kinds of pillows you can order before you arrive --
from water pillows, to "lullaby pillows."
"You can plug in your iPhone, keeping it on airplane mode and then play your Mozart or your
Beethoven and sing yourself to sleep," Robbins said.
In some ways, the $32 billion a year industry is a racket, said Dr. Robert Gotlin, Director of
Orthopedic and Sports Rehabilitation at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. He helps patients sleep through
aches and pains and said there is no cure-all.
"Everyone's neck has a different shape. No two necks are the same like a fingerprint," Gotlin said.
