For Sale: A Perfect Night's Sleep
Hotels offer elaborate sleep menus with custom pillows, mattresses and more.
March 2, 2008 — -- Dubbed "sleeponomics," companies across America are trying to sell us a perfect night's sleep with pills, pillows, white noise machines, aromatherapy, massage, acupuncture and more. And it's fast-becoming a $20 billion-a-year industry.
"Sleep is like sex -- we want more of it, we can't get enough of it. That's selling opportunity for people who need sleep!" explained Melanie Wells, a Forbes business editor. "The value of a good night of sleep is priceless."
Now the hotel industry has jumped into bed with the sleep business.
The Benjamin hotel in New York City has been one of the first cater to the sleepless masses. They offer a "Perfect Night's Sleep" money-back guarantee program. Frequent guest Pauletta Cohn, 60, a former corporate lawyer and lifelong insomniac, has become a loyal customer.
"They do create an atmosphere for you that is a calming atmosphere," said Cohn.
Since she was 18 years old, Pauletta has been a worker bee who just can't seem to find time to unwind. When she goes to bed, it's constant struggle for her to quiet her active mind.
"I think it's just my personality, my chemical make-up … I've never slept well," said Cohn.
Like millions of Americans, she has bought many sleep products that promise answers.
"I've tried the medications they have on the market -- prescription as well as non-prescription -- I've tried acupuncture; none of them have ever worked for me," she said.
The Benjamin hotel's sleep-friendly amenities cater to her insomnia. They offer a very firm mattress and will even slip a board between the mattress and the box spring to make it extra firm.
The hotel also offers her a selection of pillows, or pillow menu, as they call it. "They've got water-filled, they've got hypo-allergenic, they've got the jelly neck roll -- I've tried the buck-wheat … The beauty of this pillow [the buck-wheat], is it's sculpted. You lie down, your head drapes over, pressure is relieved from your neck," Paula said with a blissful look as she showed ABC News Correspondent JuJu Chang her favorite pillow.
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