Lulling-to-sleep service emerges as insomnia grows across China

(ECNS) -- For those who suffer from sleep disorders, it may be a good choice to have someone lull them to sleep, which appears to be an emerging business in China.

Instead of tossing about, a small group in China chose to hire someone to have late-night talks online before sleep. Such services are now available on Taobao, China's leading e-commerce marketplace, with prices ranging from 50 to 450 yuan ($6.94 to $62.47) depending on chat quality.

Comments on the servers are different in a shop, with some people thumping up for a "nice voice" or "patient", while others say it's "not polite" or "perfunctory".

"The consumers are mainly young single people, and free talk can help them relieve pressure," said Yuyue, chief physician of the Sleep Medicine Center of the Fourth People's Hospital of Chengdu.

But professional, qualified doctors generally do not work as sleep assistants, neither do psychological consultants, who are equipped with profound medical and psychological knowledge, he added.

So, the lulling-to-sleep services may play a very limited role, the doctor believes.

In addition to the service, many APPs designed to assist with sleep also appear on the market. Some provide audio materials like pre-bed stories, and white noise, some can monitor sleep status, including the times of sleep talk, the duration and decibels of snoring, and generate daily sleep reports.

Over 300 million Chinese people suffer from sleep disorders, according to a white paper released by China Sleep Research Society in 2021. Data from IIMEDIA Research shows that among consumers with insomnia, 40.36 percent of Chinese are willing to buy sleep aid products when facing sleep problems.