Stellar Sleep, a startup offering the first digital tool for chronic insomnia management, has raised $6 million in seed funding.
In the United States alone, bad sleep habits not only cost the economy hundreds of billions of dollars, but can also lead to health problems such as heart disease and depression.
There are many apps and devices that help people track and monitor their sleep. George Wang and Edrei Chua, co-founders of Stellar Sleep, said the majority of their work is aimed at people who have occasional sleep problems, and those who have had trouble sleeping for three or more nights a week for three months or more. It is said that he does not have chronic insomnia, which is defined as having severe symptoms.
Wang and Chua both suffer from chronic insomnia and were told they would have to wait six months to a year to see a sleep specialist. Instead, they took matters into their own hands and learned about sleep therapy, a psychology-based methodology that addresses why people have insomnia in the first place.
“The first choice of treatment has to be psychological,” Chua says. “But doctors are choosing between giving patients prescription drugs or putting them on a six-month waiting list. Also, many of those drugs are not recommended for long-term use, and they don't address the problem at its root cause.” It’s not something you do.”
Stellar Sleep's mobile app uses that method to help users break the cycle of frequent night wakings. By helping users relearn how to sleep well again, Stellar Sleep was found to be 50% more effective than sleeping pills in a clinical evaluation of 500 users.
Here's how it works: Users download the app, create an account, and complete an onboarding assessment to help Stellar Sleep understand the big picture behind their sleep issues. It combines several techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and motivational interviewing.
The app subscription costs $60 per month and allows users to connect to their wearables. Stellar Sleep then builds a custom interactive program that provides daily coaching to help you learn how to sleep well again. The program is getting smarter as it provides additional personalization based on the user's sleep statistics.
This new funding marks Stellar Sleep's first institutional funding. It was led by Initialized Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Lombardstreet Ventures, Switch Ventures, Moonfire Ventures, Scrum Ventures, 8vdx, and Goodwater.
Wang and Chua plan to use the new capital to increase the amount of content and curriculum offered on the app. We also want to increase the number of partnerships we have with clinicians to understand their practices and patients and provide further personalization of the user experience.
“We are focused on improving our products to ensure we can support those suffering from chronic insomnia, regardless of the cause or current life situation,” Wang said. “We also aim to expand this program to as many people as possible and strengthen the distribution side.”