Stellar Sleep – a company that provides the first digital solution for chronic insomnia management – announced a $6 million seed round, led by Initialized Capital with participation from Y Combinator, Lombardstreet Ventures, Switch Ventures, Moonfire Ventures, Scrum Ventures, 8vdx, and Goodwater.
Over 25 million Americans suffer from chronic insomnia (meaning sleep problems 3+ nights a week for 3+ months). And this condition can lead to both mental and physical health issues, ranging from trouble concentrating to sleep apnea and heart attacks.
For people who are suffering from chronic insomnia, superficial care advice (e.g., cutting coffee, reducing screen time, meditation etc.) is not enough. And their insomnia is driven by deeper psychological challenges like unresolved anxiety, burnout, or depression. Stellar Sleep is a mobile app that helps users break the insomnia cycle using a proven and psychology-based methodology, and a clinical assessment of 500 users found to be 50 percent more effective than sleeping pills.
This seed funding represents a significant milestone for Stellar Sleep, providing the ability to expand capacity further and reach. In addition, investments will allow for more comprehensive content and personalization of the user experience.
Sleeplessness in America is growing due to factors such as increasingly negative news cycles that keep people in a state of worry. And the shift towards hybrid-remote work arrangements has blurred the once-clear boundary between the stress space of work and the rest space of the home. These factors have collectively caused more Americans to have recurrent sleepless nights than ever before.
This current American healthcare system is not well-equipped to deal with chronic insomnia. And when superficial remedies don’t work, many people grappling with this condition turn to sleep medications, which often have dependency risks and are not meant for long-term use. The research shows that the most effective long-term solution for chronic insomnia is to address the root psychological causes instead of just the symptoms.
Stellar Sleep was built when the co-founders (George Wang and Edrei Chua) personally suffered from insomnia for years and struggled to get care. And guidelines by physician organizations indicate that the best way to manage chronic insomnia is using a psychological approach called sleep therapy. This approach addresses the root cause of insomnia and helps the patient re-learn how to sleep well again.
Stellar Sleep is the first digital solution that goes beyond surface-level symptoms and addresses chronic insomnia at the root. And this is how it works:
- Users download the app, create an account, and complete an onboarding assessment that enables Stellar Sleep to understand the comprehensive picture behind their sleep issues. Users can also connect their wearables to provide an even more complete view of their sleep and well-being.
- Then, Stellar Sleep builds each user a custom, interactive program that guides them daily and as needed in the middle of the night – to learn how to sleep well again. The program gets progressively more personalized based on the user’s sleep stats.
- Lastly, Stellar Sleep helps users manage the user’s chronic sleep issues over the long run using psychology. This includes a combination of proven psychology techniques (e.g., CBT, acceptance and commitment therapy, motivational interviewing) that addresses the user’s root causes of insomnia (such as anxiety or burnout) and provides them with the tools to manage those root causes, so they don’t interfere with their day-to-day life and sleep.
KEY QUOTES:
“No one values sleep as much as those who can’t get it. The treatment options are so limited that these founders got trained as sleep therapists to treat themselves. Stellar Sleep is tech-enabled Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – true tech enablement of patient care that will make a meaningful impact on the millions of people who suffer from sleep disorders worldwide.”
– Parul Singh, partner at Initialized Capital
“What we found as we tried to get treatment for ourselves was that sleep clinicians are in such short supply – waiting lists of 6-12 months are common – that access to psychology-based care is a significant obstacle for the average person. In addition to the waiting list, the cost and time commitment involved meant that out-of-pocket sleep therapy was out of reach for most. We founded Stellar Sleep with the goal of providing broad access to insomnia care via an app, a solution to a widespread public-health problem that was previously unavailable to many.”
— George Wang
