Sleep isn’t coming easily these days. Neither is calm. And for thousands of young adults in China, the solution isn’t therapy, exercise, or even melatonin—it’s adult-sized pacifiers.
They’re everywhere on Chinese e-commerce platforms like Taobao and JD.com, selling for as little as 10 yuan (about $1.40) or as much as 500 yuan (roughly $70). They’re marketed as sleep aids, stress relievers, even tools to help you quit smoking.
And for a lot of people, that’s enough to click “buy.” According to South China Morning Post, some shops are selling thousands of them every month.
Adult Pacifiers Are Rising in Popularity
Many users claim to understand. Some say it calms their nerves during work. Others claim it helps them sleep. A few even say it’s helped them stop smoking. “I feel comfortable sucking it,” one review reads. “It gives me psychological comfort and makes me not so fidgety.”
Psychologists call this the “regression phenomenon”—basically, the idea that when life gets overwhelming, people retreat into something that made them feel safe as kids. The pacifier, in this case, isn’t just an object. It’s a shortcut to comfort, a reminder of a time when you didn’t have meetings, bills, or reasons to wake up at 3 a.m. with stress-induced chest pain.
But medical professionals aren’t thrilled. Dr. Tang Caomin, a dentist in Sichuan, warned that pacifiers aren’t built for adult mouths. Prolonged use can alter your bite, cause joint damage, or disrupt your breathing during sleep. “If you sleep with a pacifier in your mouth,” Tang said, “it can interfere with breathing, and in the worst case, there is a risk of suffocation.”
Still, the trend isn’t staying local. Videos have started surfacing on TikTok showing American adults sucking on pacifiers to get through stress at work, in traffic, or during moments of pure burnout.
What started as a niche coping tool in China is now inching into global stress culture, one adult-sized binky at a time. As one Chinese buyer put it, “When I’m under pressure at work, I feel a sense of safety from childhood.”
It’s easy to laugh, but also easy to get it. When life feels unmanageable, people grab onto whatever gives them even a second of relief. Sometimes that’s deep breathing. Sometimes it’s a silicone nipple.