The hottest wellbeing trends of lockdown revealed

(Image credit: Photo by Katerina Jerabkova on Unsplash)

published 27 February 2021

Pandemic life means a lot of our usual hobbies are off-limits, and many of us have more empty down-time than usual. It seems a large chunk of us have decided to use this as an opportunity to focus on personal wellbeing and health – whether as a result of genuine self-motivation, desperation, or a lack of anything better to do.

Kaleidoscope has analysed data from Google to uncover the biggest mind-, body- and soul-focused trends of the pandemic. A look at the wellbeing terms that skyrocketed in 2020 compared to 2019 uncovers some interesting themes and trends.

One major theme is around how to sleep better at night and how to switch your brain off. We'd hazard a guess that in many cases it's added stress that's the issue.

How to sleep better at night +129%
How to sleep better with anxiety +85%
How to stop overthinking and relax +53%

person lying on bed while covering face with pillow and holding eyeglasses

It seems people are turning to affirmations and breath work as a way of coping and promoting a calm and positive outlook in the face of almighty societal chaos. 'Words of affirmation' and 'morning affirmations' were both up in 2020, while various breathing techniques also saw big uplifts in search:

Words of affirmation +125%
Box breathing +177%
Wim Hof breathing +311%

Elsewhere, always-popular fitness trends took a turn to home gym equipment as fitness bunnies scrambled to kit their spare rooms out and keep those guns popping when gyms closed their doors. Excercise bikes, pull ups bars and resistance bands were amongst the standouts.

There was also a big rise in search around certain at-home yoga and pilates terms – practices that benefit from being able to be done at home with no real equipment requirements other than a decent yoga mat.

Exercise bike +307%
Spin bike +233%
Yoga workout at home +324%
At home spa kit +805%
Pilates ring +238%

Finally, the trend for people getting in touch with their hippie sides continued into meditation and crystals:

Morning meditation +52%
Sudarshan Chakra +91%
Selenite crystal +50%
Crystals +49%

Ruth is a lifestyle journalist specialising in sleep and wellbeing. She has tested more mattresses than her small flat can handle and will talk at length about them to anyone who shows even a passing interest, and has had to implement a one-in-one-out pillow policy for fear of getting smothered in the night. As well as following all the industry trends and advancements in the mattress and bedding world, she regularly speaks to certified experts to delve into the science behind a great night's sleep, and offer you advice to help you get there. She's currently Sleep Editor on Tom's Guide and TechRadar, and prior to that ran the Outdoors and Wellness channels on T3 (now covered by Matt Kollat and Beth Girdler-Maslen respectively).