Sleep quality focus for Mass. businesses

Americans are exhausted, and Massachusetts-based companies are here to help — and cash in.

Rising stress, late-night technology use and obesity are conspiring to erode both the duration and quality of our sleep. Growing evidence poor sleep contributes to serious health issues is driving consumers and businesses to take rest more seriously.

Sleep solutions run the gamut, from drugs and devices to clinical interventions and consumer products, and local companies are exploring every corner of the industry.

“In terms of breadth and depth, we probably have the biggest cluster here in Boston,” Dr. Charles Czeisler, director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, said. Harvard’s division includes 100 physicians, the largest of its kind in the country, and many of those doctors are called upon to aid in company research, Czeisler said.

“One of the key reasons we’re growing quickly is that studies have shown significant links between poor sleep and diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypertension,” Paul Valentine, CEO of Boston-based Sleep HealthCenters, said. If you complain to your doctor about sleep problems, you may find yourself covered in electrodes at one of Valentine’s locations around the state, for an overnight sleep study. The company, launched in 1997, operates 25 centers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Arizona, including two opened in 2010. The company booked $30 million in revenue in 2010, up from $20 million three years ago. The company’s newest venture is working with businesses and their wellness programs to address sleep health issues, particularly in diagnosing sleep apnea. Its largest deal to date is with Gordon Trucking, Inc. which has 1,500 truckers across the country.

“Gordon is really ahead of the curve here, but the trucking industry is beginning to move in this direction because national regulations may soon require screening for sleep apnea,” Valentine said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported last month that “drowsy driving” has been responsible for an estimated 1,550 fatalities and 40,000 non-fatal injuries annually in the U.S.

Valentine said the company is seeking deals in other industries, such as air traffic controllers, where sleep can be a matter of life and death, but also entering alliances with companies across the spectrum where better sleep may boost productivity.

Many of those patients who are found to have sleep apnea will be directed to use CPAP — continuous positive airway pressure — devices. Philips Healthcare, based in Andover, markets CPAP machines as part of its Home Healthcare Solutions division. Philips has projected market growth of 8 percent to 10 percent for sleep products.

“The incidence of sleep apnea has just about doubled since 1993,” Dr. David White, chief medical officer for Philips Home Healthcare Solutions, said. White says the biggest culprit is obesity, which accounts for about three fourths of cases. But he says not all sleep apnea is the same, and learning how to treat patients individually is the key to future management of the disease. White has so far identified at least four different characteristics that can cause sleep apnea, and Philips is at work designing a device that can “phenotype” sleep apnea patients into different groups. White has found a certain group of sleep apnea patients can benefit from taking just oxygen, which does not require bulky masks. Another group improved symptoms significantly by simply taking Lunesta, a sleep drug made by Marlborough-based Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which is now owned by Japanese drug maker Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma.

Asked if this strategy would hurt sales of Philips’ CPAP devices, White said, “If CPAP becomes obsolete, we want to be the ones to do it.”

The sleep crisis extends beyond those with documented sleep disorders, doctors say. Experts blame stress and late-night technology use, since light emitted from screens can disrupt circadian rhythms.

A consumer product called Zeo Personal Sleep Coach, made by Newton-based Zeo, Inc., is designed to help people fight sleep-robbing habits. A headband equipped with sensors measures sleep quality using brainwave activity and muscle tone. Users then receive a so-called “ZQ” score that allows them to track sleep quality over time.

An online coaching component makes suggestions about how to improve sleep quality, like not drinking too much wine, or installing room-darkening shades. The company was co-founded by Ben Rubin in 2003, when he was a student at Brown University. To date, the 25-person company has raised $26 million in venture capital, and Colin Angle, CEO of Cambridge-based iRobot, is on the company’s board.

Rubin would not disclose his company’s revenue. Zeo’s product is available through Amazon.com, and Rubin is in talks with Best Buy, a new investor in the company, about selling the Personal Sleep Coach in its stores. Rubin says the key to reversing the trend toward sleep-deprivation is changing people’s attitudes about the benefits of sleep.

“We now live in a society where people say, ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead.’”