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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- What you need to know
- Market factors
- New product trends
- Consumer insights and opportunities
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THE MARKET
- Market factors
- Rising employment uncertainty among younger consumers is intensifying anxiety
- Graph 1: registered unemployed people in urban areas, 2021-25
- Graph 2: unemployment rate among the urban labour force aged 25-59, 2025-26
- Improving overnight sleep quality is emerging as a new consumer need
- Sleep and emotion should be viewed as an interconnected health issue
- New product trends
- Innovation in the stress relief and sleep-support market is losing momentum, creating an urgent need for differentiated innovation to reinvigorate demand and enhance product value
- Graph 3: proportion* of new food, drink, sleep aid, vitamin and dietary supplement launches carrying stress and sleep claims, 2021-26
- Supplements remain dominant but innovation is losing momentum, while drink innovation has grown significantly over the past year
- Graph 4: category distribution of new launches carrying stress and sleep claims, 2021-26
- Graph 5: changes in the category share of new launches carrying stress and sleep claims, 2021-26
- Combining traditional Chinese wellness ingredients with modern technologies to drive innovation in stress relief and sleep-support drinks
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CONSUMER INSIGHTS
- Overview of consumer demand for improving emotional wellbeing and sleep health
- Demand for improving sleep and emotional wellbeing is widespread, supporting opportunities across both single-efficacy and dual-efficacy products
- Graph 6: distribution of demand for improving sleep and/or emotional wellbeing, 2026
- Men prioritise emotional wellbeing improvement, while women show stronger demand for both emotional wellbeing and sleep improvement
- Graph 7: distribution of demand for improving sleep and/or emotional wellbeing, by gender, 2026
- Age 40 marks a dividing line between demand for single-efficacy and dual-efficacy products
- Graph 8: distribution of demand for improving sleep and/or emotional wellbeing, by age, 2026
- Enhance the emotional value of food and drink through multisensory experiences
- Stress, fatigue and low mood remain the most common emotional wellbeing issues, with the proportion of consumers experiencing increased anxiety rising for three consecutive years
- Graph 9: changes in emotional wellbeing, 2026
- Graph 10: changes in emotional wellbeing among consumers reporting having higher levels of each emotion, 2024-26
- People living alone are more susceptible to a range of emotional wellbeing challenges, brands need to deliver broader emotional support
- Graph 11: changes in emotional wellbeing – more often, by living situation, 2026
- Music and exercise are consumers’ preferred approaches to emotional wellbeing management, while food and drink serve as an important source of emotional support
- Graph 12: ways to improve/manage emotions, 2026
- Deeply integrate music with foods and drinks to deliver a new, multisensory emotional experience
- Consumers prefer to derive emotional value from light indulgence categories
- Graph 13: preferred categories for emotional wellbeing support, 2026
- Chocolate and confectionery offer a strong entry point for emotional wellbeing positioning, with scope to address a range of specific emotional needs
- Graph 14: comfort food associations, 2024
- Graph 15: preferred categories for emotional wellbeing support, by gender, 2026
- Use the people-product-occasion framework to position chocolate and confectionery as a comprehensive source of emotional comfort
- Crunchy, smooth and melt-in-the-mouth textures offer strong potential to enhance the emotional value offered by chocolate
- Graph 16: texture innovations of interest, 2024
- Graph 17: texture distribution among new chocolate launches, 2021-26
- Redefine chocolate’s multisensory appeal through process innovation and cross-category collaboration
- Support more targeted overnight sleep quality management through safe, gentle and long-lasting solutions
- The sleep economy is attracting a growing pool of potential consumers
- Graph 18: proportion of respondents with sleep difficulties*, 2024-26
- All-night sleep quality management is the next frontier beyond helping consumers fall asleep
- Graph 19: sleep status, 2026
- Graph 20: self-assessment of sleep throughout the night, 2025 vs 2026
- Draw inspiration from the sleep-stage framework used by wearable devices…
- Graph 21: ways to improve sleep, by sleep status, 2026
- …to drive all-night sleep product innovation
- Redefine sleep management as a safe, gentle and long-term commitment to reinvigorate product innovation
- Graph 22: key concerns when buying foods/drinks and supplements to improve sleep, 2026
- Graph 23: key concerns when buying foods/drinks and supplements to improve sleep, by sleep status, 2026
- Use dual-phase and extended-release technologies to support different stages of the sleep cycle
- Probiotics, melatonin and B vitamins lead consumer interest in sleep support…
- Graph 24: ingredients of interest, by need to improve sleep/emotional wellbeing, 2026
- …but concerns around safety may limit melatonin’s growth
- Take inspiration from safe, lifestyle-based sleep-support mechanisms to explain how supplement ingredients work
- Graph 25: ways to improve/manage sleep, 2026
- Graph 26: key concerns when buying foods/drinks and supplements to improve sleep – cross-analysis, 2026
- Reduce consumers’ safety concerns around melatonin through endogenous pathways and dose management
- Unlock sleep-support innovation opportunities through milk and yogurt
- Graph 27: category preferences for improving sleep quality, 2026
- Focus on upgrading functional ingredients in white milk innovation while linking the product to bedtime occasions
- Urgent need to develop a sleep-support narrative for yogurt beyond its digestive health benefits
- Graph 28: proportion of new yogurt products* with functional claims, 2021-26
- Graph 29: proportion of noteworthy functional claims among new yogurt products*, 2021-26
- Drive sleep-support yogurt innovation through functional expansion and sensory experience enhancement
- Use safety and broader health benefits to unlock opportunities in the sleep and emotional wellbeing support segment
- The segment targeting both sleep and emotional wellness emerges, with supplements holding greater potential to deliver both efficacies
- Graph 30: ecommerce sales of emotional wellbeing and sleep-support supplements on Taobao and Tmall, 2025-26
- Graph 31: category preferences for improving both mood and sleep quality, 2026
- Safety and sustained effectiveness are central to the dual-efficacy segment…
- Graph 32: respondents seeking to improve both mood and sleep, by key concern when purchasing food, drink and supplements to improve mood, 2026
- Graph 33: respondents seeking to improve both mood and sleep, by key concern when purchasing food, drink and supplements to improve sleep, 2026
- …and this is supported by the top-selling ingredients on ecommerce platforms
- Amid total wellbeing trends, communication can focus on the added benefits for skin, brain and cardiovascular health
- Graph 34: the benefits of good sleep, 2024
- Graph 35: the impact of emotional issues, 2025
- Strengthen differentiated health value by combining ingredients and targeting specific consumer segments
- Beyond efficacy, draw on pleasurable sensory elements from other categories to enhance the emotional value of health supplements
- Traditional Chinese wellness food and drink offer strong potential for supporting both sleep and emotional wellbeing beyond broader lifestyle-based approaches
- Traditional Chinese health food and drink offer strong potential for supporting both sleep and emotional wellbeing beyond broader lifestyle-based approaches
- Graph 36: ways to improve/manage emotional wellbeing and sleep, 2026
- Graph 37: ways to improve/manage emotional wellbeing and sleep, by age, 2026
- Best-selling products use modern adaptations of traditional formulas to enhance the relevance of traditional wellness for contemporary lifestyles
- Modernising the expression of functional health benefits and nutritional profiles reinforces the communicative impact of traditional recipes
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APPENDIX
- Methodology: consumer survey
- Abbreviations
Consumer demand for improved emotional wellbeing and sleep quality is widespread, creating opportunities for both single-efficacy and dual-efficacy products. Single-efficacy brands can leverage the food and drink sector to support everyday wellbeing management, while capitalising on a shift towards gentler, long-term positioning in the health supplements market. Dual-efficacy brands can align with total wellbeing trends by offering benefits for both sleep and emotional wellbeing, alongside additional health benefits to stand out from competitors.
Mooy Chen, Associate Research Analyst, China
Market Definitions
This Report consists of three main sections:
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Emotional wellbeing management: an in-depth exploration of consumer behaviours, needs, communication strategies and product innovation opportunities in emotional wellbeing management.
Emotional wellbeing refers to consumers’ self-assessment of different emotional states, including stress, fatigue, low mood, anxiety, panic, irritability, depression and loneliness.
- Sleep health management: an in-depth exploration of consumer behaviours, needs, concerns and product innovation opportunities in sleep management.
- Integrated sleep and emotional wellbeing management: an in-depth exploration of consumer characteristics, needs, concerns and product innovation opportunities related to supporting both sleep and emotional wellbeing.
The sleep and emotional wellbeing products covered in this Report include but are not limited to:
- Health supplements such as melatonin, sleep aid sprays
- Functional food and drinks containing ingredients associated with emotional wellbeing and sleep benefits such as snacks or drinks containing gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)
- Traditional Chinese wellness food such as spine date seed and calming soup
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