Drowsy: From Chronic Insomnia to Cult Sleep Mask Success
Daily Health & Beauty
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Vendor Story
Drowsy Sleep Co.
Five years of burnout. Twelve months of obsessive product testing. One sleep mask that sold out in minutes on national TV — and changed everything.
Shop Drowsy ↓What happens when two brothers run high-pressure hospitality businesses for five years straight, lose the ability to sleep, and hit total burnout? If you’re Thom and Rich Hemelryk, you sell everything, rebuild your lives around sleep, and end up creating one of the most talked-about luxury sleep products in the UK. Drowsy is the story of personal crisis becoming global purpose.
Part 01
Burnout — The Breaking Point
“We were working 16-hour days running a hospitality business. With no time to wind down, the stress, anxiety, and tension from the day carried over to bedtime. Unable to switch off, our constant sleeplessness snowballed into chronic insomnia and total burnout.”
Part 02
Life Overhaul — The Brave Decision
“With no energy to put into relationships, decreased productivity and increasingly unhealthy habits, we realised it was time for a serious change. We sold all of our businesses and decided to get our lives back on track.”
Part 03
Sleep Obsessed — The Focus Shift
“Sleep became our focus for each day so that we could guarantee a good night. Slowly but surely we got back to living life at 100% and sleeping better than ever. We discovered that insomnia is a chronic, global problem with serious implications for people’s health and wellness. Two thirds of UK adults suffer from disrupted sleep.”
“What could we create that would make bedtime irresistibly good? Something that genuinely helped improve people’s sleep — and deliver an experience so luxurious that the day’s stress melts away, making deep sleep easy.”
— Thom & Rich Hemelryk, Co-Founders, DrowsyPart 04
The Seeds of Drowsy — The Journey Begins
“Suddenly we’d embarked on a year-long journey to make the ultimate sleep mask. Something that was a glorious retreat from the world. A safe place from the day’s stress, where no light gets in. An experience so luxurious that bedtime would naturally signal ‘deep sleep’.”
Part 05
Drowsy is Born — The Launch
“After 12 months of product testing, hundreds of fabrics, fillings, and designs, we launched our sleep mask 1.0. It was created by us and for us. We didn’t know if it was what the world wanted, but it helped our own sleep so much that we were desperate to get it out there and start changing lives.”
Part 06
The Day Everything Changed — The Breakthrough
“After 6 months of low sales, we were starting to panic. But then in August 2020 we got the call that changed everything. One of the UK’s leading beauty editors had discovered our mask and she was obsessed. We were going to be featured on national TV the following day — and should ‘get ready’.”
Part 07
Chaos — The Overwhelming Success
“The fallout from our TV appearance was bigger than anything we ever could have dreamed of. The mask sold out in minutes and we spent 2 months dealing with a backlog of orders. In the following weeks and months Drowsy went on to be featured in some of the world’s leading beauty publications. Luxury sleep had finally entered the mainstream conversation.”
What Makes Drowsy Different
- Founded by chronic insomnia sufferers — genuine credibility behind every product
- 12 months of testing across hundreds of fabrics, fillings, and designs
- Cult status among UK beauty editors and national press
- Office doubles as an in-house sleep lab for continuous improvement
- Helped thousands achieve transformational beauty sleep
- Luxury antidote to modern stress — designed to make deep sleep effortless
Now available at Daily Health & Beauty
The luxury sleep mask that sold out in minutes on national TV.
Shop Drowsy ↓Meet the Founders
Thom & Rich Hemelryk — brothers, former hospitality entrepreneurs, and the men who turned their worst years into one of the UK’s most celebrated sleep brands.
“We are still as obsessed with sleep as ever. We run a very small team with our 2 best friends and our partners who help with every detail of the business. We still struggle to sleep occasionally, but this time we’re prepared!”
At Daily Health & Beauty, we carry Drowsy because their story is exactly the kind we believe in: real pain, real research, real results — and a product that genuinely changes how people rest.
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