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News
From “good sleep” to “brain health”, sleep serves as a critical window for the nutrition and health industry to observe shifting demands for brain health. As global consumers pay growing attention to stress, mood, sleep, cognition and long?term well?being, previously fragmented health demands are converging toward a major industrial direction — brain health. Behind this shift lies a rapidly expanding global health industry.
According to the 2025 Global Wellness Economy Monitor released by the Global Wellness Institute (GWI), the global health economy reached USD 6.8 trillion in 2024, representing a year?on?year growth of 7.9% and doubling its size compared with 2013. Notably, GWI projects the global health economy will maintain an average annual growth rate of approximately 7.6% from 2024 to 2029, approaching USD 9.8 trillion by 2029.
Mental wellness stands out amid this growth. Statistics show that the global mental wellness sector registered an annual growth rate of 12.4% between 2019 and 2024, making it one of the fastest?growing segments within the health economy. Among sub?trends of mental wellness, sleep health achieved an average annual growth rate of 12.6%.
From global industrial statistics, sleep is no longer merely an independent functional?food track; it has become a vital component of the broader mental wellness, physical?mental well?being and brain?health industries. This trend is accompanied by shifts in R&D logic for functional?food raw materials.
Consumer demands for sleep are undergoing transformation. In the past, sleep?focused products largely addressed relatively simple needs such as sleep onset and sleep duration. Today, consumers are increasingly concerned about sleep quality, stress, emotional status, mental vitality, as well as cognitive performance and work efficiency on the following day. As a result, the boundaries among sleep, mental wellness, healthy aging and brain health are growing increasingly blurred.
Meanwhile, the market for brain?health nutritional supplements itself is expanding rapidly.
Data from Grand View Research indicates that the global market for brain?health nutritional supplements reached approximately USD 12.4 billion in 2025. It is expected to hit USD 14.0 billion in 2026 and USD 31.4 billion by 2033, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 12.2% for 2026?2033.
Although market definitions and statistical scopes vary across research institutions, the industrial trend is clear: consumer interest in brain health is extending beyond traditional concepts of cognition and memory toward sleep, mood, stress management and holistic physical?mental conditions.
Market expansion brings new challenges for product development. As consumer requirements evolve from single?function benefits toward compound health management, the problems that single ingredients can solve become increasingly limited. Industry focus is shifting from “which ingredient to select” to “how to better combine ingredients and achieve their stable application”. This drives delivery technology beyond traditional single?ingredient encapsulation toward exploring synergistic multi?component delivery.
At the Activate Brain Power, Reshape Body & Mind — 2026 Innovation Forum for Brain Health, Sleep and Mood Applications held today, Professor Li Chong, Head of the Functional Raw Material R&D Center at Natural Field, Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, presented the NF TriSolve® sleep?health solution.
Its R&D logic does not rely on simply adding more raw materials into formulations. Instead, it conducts systematic thinking covering active?ingredient screening, formula combination, delivery technology and scientific evaluation based on end?product requirements. This reflects a key R&D orientation of Natural Field for functional raw?materials: shifting from “supplying a single raw material” toward “delivering solutions for specific health scenarios”.
For raw?material enterprises, this transformation suggests that partnerships with brand owners may evolve from the traditional purchase?supply model toward provision of technical support, formulation ideas and application?oriented solutions.
For Natural Field, this forum is more than a marketing event. Research on botanical active ingredients, liposomal delivery and compound sleep?health solutions aligns closely with Natural Field’s ongoing R&D efforts in recent years.
Industrial demands are changing, and R&D needs to anticipate such changes in advance. Through continuous technological accumulation, we aim to provide more technical options for future innovation of functional foods, dietary supplements and nutritional health products.