Executive Overview
For the past two decades, the modern wellness movement has been defined by high-intensity exertion, quantified self-optimization, and structural extremes. Consumers have pushed their bodies through grueling 33-minute treadmill sprints, plunged themselves into 50-degree ice baths, and tracked every beat of their heart, step of their day, and calorie of their diet via gleaming smartwatches. The prevailing cultural ethos dictated that wellness was something to be earned through physical labor and aggressive biohacking.
Now, a profound cultural pendulum swing is underway. As smartphones, social media feeds, and constant notifications push human cognitive capacity to its breaking point, a new avant-garde of fitness and wellness entrepreneurs is pivoting away from physical exhaustion and toward what matters most: cognitive recovery.
Enter better.states, an ambitious new boutique wellness concept centered entirely around intentional rest, digital disconnection, and brain health. Founded by fitness industry veteran Jamie Weeks—the powerhouse investor and managing partner behind Atlanta-based Founders Row—alongside Beachbody (P90X) founder Jon Congdon, better.states is pioneering a brand-new category of brick-and-mortar spaces they call “daydream studios.”
Scheduled to launch flagship locations in New York City, Miami, and Atlanta next year, better.states is designed to solve a modern crisis that did not exist before the launch of the iPhone in 2007: chronic, inescapable digital saturation. Eschewing smartphones, weights, and high-intensity sweat sessions, the concept invites consumers to check their devices at the door, lie down on specialized portals that induce drug-free psychedelic experiences through synchronized light and sound, and surrender to the lost art of daydreaming.
This deep dive examines the genesis of better.states, the neuroscientific science of the default mode network, the macro trends driving consumers away from nightlife and toward brain health, and why industry leaders believe that disconnecting from technology will soon become the ultimate lifestyle "flex."
Detailed Chronology: The Evolution of Jamie Weeks and the Birth of Better.States
To understand the trajectory of better.states, one must trace the career of Jamie Weeks, a serial entrepreneur who has an uncanny knack for identifying consumer wellness trends years before they hit the mainstream.
2010–2019: The Era of High-Intensity Scalability
Weeks cut his teeth scaling franchise fitness empires. He was instrumental in building the largest Orangetheory Fitness franchise group in the country, ultimately operating 142 locations of the bootcamp-meets-treadmill concept. Orangetheory, which launched in 2010, capitalized on the 2010s obsession with interval training, heart-rate monitoring, and communal exertion. It grew to more than 1,200 locations worldwide.
2019: The Cold Plunge and Sauna Boom
Recognizing that consumers were beginning to seek physical recovery modalities alongside cardiovascular training, Weeks founded SweatHouz in 2019. Pioneering the convergence of infrared saunas, cold plunges, and contrast therapy, SweatHouz proved that consumers were willing to pay premium prices for specialized recovery spaces. Today, SweatHouz operates 105 locations across 25 states. Weeks’s portfolio at Founders Row continued to expand through investments in niche concepts like LiftHer (a women’s strength training gym) and All Day Pilates (a digitally instructed pilates concept).
The Catalyst: Recognizing the Post-2007 Cognitive Crisis
Despite his success in physical fitness, Weeks began noticing a silent, insidious epidemic plaguing consumers: chronic digital fatigue. The constant ping of notifications, the algorithmic pull of social media, and the blurring of boundaries between work and personal life were destroying human attention spans and elevating baseline stress levels.
Weeks teamed up with Jon Congdon, the visionary founder behind P90X and Beachbody, to address what they identified as an unserved market gap.
"If we look at the science of what screens have done to us in the last 20 years, it’s so obvious what we need," Weeks explained in an interview with Glossy. "Prior to 2007, we didn’t know that this would be a problem, that the need for disconnection would be a real thing… I know we’re early with better.states, but this category is coming, no two ways about it."
2025 and Beyond: The Launch of Better.states
With development underway for flagship studios in New York, Miami, and Atlanta, better.states is poised to redefine the urban wellness landscape. The founders are deliberately casting a wide net to establish the category parameters, offering everything from meditation, breathwork, and journaling to instructor-led sound baths, late-night silent discos, adaptogenic juice bars, and substance-free digital psychedelic journeys.
Supporting Context & Metrics: The Science of the Default Mode Network and Market Shifts
Neuroscience and the "Default Mode Network"
The philosophy behind better.states is rooted deeply in neuroscience. When humans are awake, alert, and staring at screens, their brains are locked in task-positive networks—processing information, reacting to stimuli, and executing directives. Conversely, when the brain is left to rest without digital stimulation, it activates the default mode network (DMN).
The DMN is inextricably tied to meditation, autobiographical memory recall, emotional processing, and daydreaming.
"When you daydream, it’s memory consolidation and emotional connections," Weeks notes. "There’s science to it. Now, every day, every chance you get to daydream is replaced with a scroll."
By substituting mindless scrolling with intentional daydreaming and deep rest, better.states aims to heal the cognitive fray caused by modern technological consumption.
The Death of the Smartphone and the Rise of "Dumb Phones"
The cultural hunger for digital disconnection is bleeding into consumer tech and lifestyle habits. A burgeoning subculture of digital minimalists has given rise to alternative hardware products:
- Brick: A physical device that locks users out of addictive social media applications for designated periods of time.
- Meadow: A stripped-down "dumb phone" pre-loaded exclusively with core utilities—music, maps, text, calls, and ridesharing—allowing users to abandon the endless scroll of smartphones without entirely disconnecting from modern logistics.
The Demographics of Sobriety and Wellbeing
The consumer shift toward brain health is further highlighted by generational shifts in socializing. Nightlife and binge drinking are rapidly losing ground to wellness-centric rituals, particularly among Gen Z and Millennials.
According to recent data from fitness booking platform ClassPass, 53% of surveyed users aged 18 to 34 reported booking a workout, class, or wellness experience in the past year instead of going out for drinks or nightlife. This contrasts sharply with 42% of respondents aged 35 and older, proving that younger generations are actively redefining leisure time around physical and mental longevity.
Official Statements and Industry Insights
The emergence of the "daydream studio" model challenges conventional wisdom within the wellness sector. Critics might question whether consumers will pay out-of-pocket to meditate, journal, or daydream—activities that can theoretically be performed at home for free.
However, Jamie Weeks argues that mental rest is actually a much easier sell than physical punishment:
"Do you know how hard it is to convince people to do an all-out sprint for 33 minutes on a treadmill, or get in a cold plunge for three minutes at 50 degrees? It’s really, really hard," Weeks points out. "Convincing people to come to a digital meditation for 45 minutes to rest their brain is a really low lift."
Furthermore, better.states is strategically positioning itself to capture an underserved window of time in the consumer schedule. Traditional gym classes, fitness studios, and wellness spas heavily skew toward pre-evening hours.
"Eighty-five percent of the health and wellness offerings available now are before 6 p.m.," Weeks notes. "Better.states is the place where you’re going to want to go at 8, 9, or 10 p.m. on a Friday or Saturday night to do a digital meditation session while you’re hanging out with your friends, or before or after dinner."
To protect the sanctity of the experience, zero screens will be permitted inside the facilities. Clients will be required to check their smartphones and smartwatches at the front desk or secure them in locking Faraday-style bags for the duration of their 2-to-3-hour visit. Session pricing will range from $50 to $85, accommodating both individual appointments and immersive group classes.
At the heart of the technological experience is the Morphus LayFlat portal, a proprietary bed engineered by Jon Congdon. Depending on the user’s goals, the bed uses synchronized light, sound, and vibrational frequencies to either gently induce deep meditation or deliver a completely drug-free digital psychedelic journey.
Future Outlook: The Flex of the 2020s
As wellness brands continue to converge across beauty, tech, and mental health—exemplified by Unilever blurring the lines between beauty and wellness, and biohackers experimenting with advanced peptides and red-light therapies—the competitive landscape of self-care is evolving at breakneck speed.
Yet, amidst the high-tech innovations of AI-driven tools, wearable health rings, and advanced recovery chambers, the ultimate luxury of the coming decade may not be acquiring more data or achieving higher performance metrics. Instead, it will be the deliberate, unapologetic act of turning everything off.
Weeks believes that stepping away from technology to invest in brain health will soon become the ultimate status symbol:
"Being disconnected from technology a few nights per week will soon become the flex that being busy was in the 2010s. The pendulum is swinging the other way."
If better.states succeeds in establishing the daydream studio as a cultural institution, it will prove that the future of wellness is not found in pushing the human engine harder, but in finally giving it permission to rest.
