Discovery Vitality’s next frontier begins in your bedroom

Discovery Vitality has announced the launch of its Vitality Sleep Score and Sleep Rewards programme to further expand its health ecosystem. 

These will add another dimension to Vitality’s data set, a collection that Vitality CEO Dinesh Govender says rivals the likes of American tech giants and is the most unique in the world. 

Govender explained to Daily Investor that the proprietary Vitality Sleep Score is a world first, based on 47 million nights’ worth of data. In comparison, Apple’s version is built on only 5 million nights’ worth. 

What makes the data set unique is not only its sheer size, but Vitality’s ability to combine information from Discovery Insure, Health, Life, and its bank. 

This effectively enables Vitality to tap into a user’s medical aid claims data, their spending behaviour, historic life insurance claims, and driving behaviour to create a complete risk profile that no other company can. 

Sleep is the latest piece of this puzzle, with Vitality’s research linking it to the health of clients, their estimated lifespan, and driving behaviour. 

Launching to the public in 2026, Govender explained that the model is currently undergoing a final few rounds of testing with Discovery employees, such as himself.

Brandishing his new ŌURA ring, Govender explained that Discovery’s partnership with the American tech company gives it access to unrivalled sleep data. 

The ring also forms part of Vitality’s long-term incentive programme to encourage positive behaviour shifts, with individuals able to get the ŌURA Ring 4 free of charge depending on their Sleep Score and sleep goals. 

This will be the first time the ŌURA Ring 4 is available in South Africa, with Govender explaining that the partnership was vital due to the ring’s usability with far more individuals willing to sleep with it than a smart watch. 

ŌURA’s latest ring is only available to Discovery Vitality members with a qualifying Discovery Bank account. 

The new Sleep Score is based on Vitality’s extensive research into sleep and its impact on overall health and insurance claims. 

Vitality’s research showed that people who do not sleep enough or get consistently good sleep face a 22% higher risk of death and significantly increased risks of diabetes, heart disease and depression. 

A lack of quality sleep also translates into an increased likelihood of driving accidents, workplace errors, and poor productivity. 

The company’s data shows that one in two Vitality members have at least one sleep metric out of range, exposing them to these significantly increased risks. 

How it works 

While the model has not been fully tested yet and will only be rolled out in 2026, Vitality unpacked how it would work and how users would get benefits in the form of Sleep Rewards. 

Govender explained that there are four weightings that determine an individual’s sleep score, which will then inform their goals and the various rewards they can earn. 

“We consider your regularity, which is the time you get to bed and wake up and how consistently you do that. We also rate your duration, your REM sleep and your deep sleep, which informs the quality of your sleep,” Govender said. 

The basic heuristic for individuals to easily understand how the score is produced is 1 to 7, meaning you should sleep within a one-hour time window every night, and you should sleep for seven hours. 

“If you are doing that consistently and getting at least 15% of the time spent in REM sleep and another 15% in deep sleep, then you are most likely getting great sleep,” Govender explained. 

Vitality filters this quite intensely based on your personal situation, which is why the Sleep Score taps into all the data the company has on you. 

“We will look at your age, gender, clinical characteristics, lifestyle, physical activity, and chronic conditions to determine what sleep you as an individual should get,” Govender said. 

“For some individuals, according to our data, REM sleep may be more important than duration and for others, duration is more important.” 

As it currently functions, an individual’s Sleep Score will fit into the existing Vitality Rewards programme and contribute to their weekly points tally. 

This helps Vitality translate short-term behavioural changes into long-term habits, with immediate gratification attracting the attention of individuals and sustained programmes ensuring positive behaviour is maintained. 

“Our early data on sleep has given us comfort that ten weeks is an appropriate time for someone to develop a decent sleep habit,” Govender explained. 

“So, a lot of our activity algorithms are based around making sure someone is tracking and achieving a good enough Sleep Score at ten weeks before making it progressively harder to achieve excellent sleep.” 

Govender said Discovery will make use of small nudges and incremental steps to build this habit over time and improve an individual’s behaviour towards sleep. 

This will also tap into Discovery Health’s new Personal Health Pathways offering to give an individual personalised health advice based on their sleeping patterns.