Market Challenges And Opportunities

Global Sleep App Market Drivers:

Rising prevalence of sleep disorders: Rising prevalence of sleep disorders across the globe is one of the major factors contributing to the growth of global sleep app market. Sleep disorders have increased multifold over the years due to changing lifestyles and high stress levels. According to the data provided by American Sleep Apnea Association, in 2021, sleep apnea affects over 25 Mn of U.S. and 80% of moderate and severe cases remain undiagnosed. Stress, obesity, medication side effects, and consumption of alcohol are some of the common causes of sleep disorders.
Increasing health awareness: Rising awareness regarding the importance of good quality sleep and overall health and wellness is one of the major factors propelling the growth of the global sleep app market. People are more conscious about tracking their sleep patterns and duration by using smart devices and apps. Several studies conducted by organizations like World Health Organization (WHO) and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have highlighted the crucial role of sufficient sleep in maintaining mental and physical health, immune function, weight control, and productivity. The COVID-19 pandemic has further emphasized the significance of sleep for building resilience against illnesses.
Advent of wearable technology: Many users are increasingly adopting wearable devices and downloading sleep monitoring apps to analyze their sleep patterns better and take corrective measures, if needed. The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated this trend as more people try to manage stress and improve immunity by monitoring and optimizing their sleep. The awareness about importance of good sleep for overall well-being has increased significantly in the past. According to the data provided by World Health Organization (WHO), in 2020, at least 50-70 Mn of U.S. population suffer from over 80 different sleep disorders. Advanced sleep tracking solutions can help diagnose such disorders at an early stage.

Global Sleep App Market Opportunities:

Integration with other health apps and devices: Connecting sleep tracking to overall wellness data can provide users with more actionable insights. For example, linking nocturnal heart rate and breathing patterns recorded by a smart watch to daily activity and calorie burn logged in a fitness app may reveal connections between sleep quality and next-day energy levels or workout performance. Similarly, integrating sleep app data with glucose readings from a connected glucometer could help diabetes patients understand how rest impacts blood sugar control. As healthcare moves towards more holistic and preventative models, aggregating the full picture of how lifestyle factors interconnect will be invaluable for users and medical practitioners alike.
Telemedicine services: Telemedicine services could provide a great opportunity in the growing sleep monitoring app market. As more people struggle with lack of sleep and sleep disorders, remote monitoring of sleep patterns through apps and devices could help improve diagnosis and treatment. According to the CDC, over 30% of American adults are deprived of enough sleep on a regular basis. Lack of sleep is linked to numerous health issues like obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and depression. Sleep apps allow users to track their sleep schedules, durations, disturbances, and cycles remotely on their phones without visiting in-person clinics. This data can be shared with doctors and specialists to analyze sleep trends over time, look for irregularities, and determine if clinical insomnia or other disorders are present.

However, data privacy and security concerns could act as a restraint. People may feel hesitant sharing their personal sleep data with apps over security and privacy risks. Lack of accuracy in sleep stage tracking for some lower-end devices is another challenge, thus undermining the credibility of apps relying on such devices. Opportunities exist in the medical sector with further validation of consumer sleep apps helping in diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders. Collaborations between app developers and sleep clinics can help realize this opportunity.

Global Sleep App Market Restraints:

Data privacy concerns: There have been numerous instances of data breaches involving health and fitness apps in the past couple of years. In 2020, a study by International Computer Science Institute found that over a quarter of most popular sleep applications shared users' personal information like physical activities, menstrual cycles and fertility with third parties without consent. This eroded user trust in these apps and impacted their willingness to adopt new sleep tracking solutions. App developers are also unable to clearly communicate how the collected personal data is protected, for how long it is stored and if it is offered to advertising and data analytics companies. They often have complicated and legalistic privacy policies that are tough to comprehend for general users.
High costs of devices: High cost of devices is one of the major factors restraining the growth of sleep monitoring application market. Sleep monitoring requires devices like smartphones, smartwatches or dedicated sleep trackers that integrate with apps to track sleep patterns. However, these devices are at a considerable cost which is unaffordable for many consumers. For example, according to the report published by United Nations Population Fund, in 2021, more than 2.2 billion people, which are around 30% of the world's population, lived below the international poverty line of US$ 3.20 a day in 2020.