Not everybody gets a good night’s sleep, whether it’s because of wandering thoughts, uncomfortable sleeping positions, or even extremely bright rooms. However, deep and uninterrupted sleep is important, especially during this pandemic. After all, studies have shown how sleep is a natural way to boost one’s immune system. Fortunately, technology has provided several solutions, each aiming to solve specific sleeping challenges.
Here are the best of them:
Sleep trackers
There are a lot of sleep trackers in the app market. They “monitor” your sleeping patterns, or record how many hours you don’t pick up your phone, and recommend solutions based on their findings. However, there are also physical sleep trackers on the market that let you do all that without configuring anything. For example, FitSleep tracks your body’s sound waves and sends out alpha noise (or sounds your body is most comfortable with) during the hours you’re asleep.
There’s also EMFIT’s QS sleep monitor, which tracks heartbeats. In the morning, it tells you when you enter every sleep stage (Light, Deep, REM) and how you can optimize your bedtime routine to make them align with the recommended value for your body type and age.
Smart pillows
Snoring is caused when airflow is blocked or restricted, increasing the chances of waking up periodically throughout the night. Luckily, companies such as Smart Nora and 10minds have created pillows that can sense your snores and prevent them from occurring. PCBs today are extremely flat and flexible, so it was only a matter of figuring out how to connect all the components without making the user feel like there’s a working machine underneath their head. This computer-enabled design used net ties to meet PCB requirements and establish its schematic wiring. By attaching a type of copper footprint, the motors can gently shift your head to a position where you’re less likely to snore.
Temperature-sensitive mattress
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night because the air was too cold or hot? A cooling mattress exists to prevent this. Eight Sleep’s smart mattress called The Pod is equipped with their patented “Active Grid” technology that automatically adjusts itself to the temperature that you’re comfortable sleeping in. It knows this based on your movements. Plus, it runs on water, so the temperature is evenly distributed throughout the mattress. The Pod can even be programmed to gently wake you up by slowly adjusting the heat.
AI-aided sleep mask
If you have a roommate who sleeps after you do or you’ve mistakenly placed your bed in front of a window, then your sleep might be disturbed because of different forms of light. However, our research has found that not everybody adjusts to light this way. For example, some people sleep better with orange lights. Moreover, exposing your eyes to morning light after they have been submerged in total darkness will cause eyestrain in the morning.
Dreamlight’s sleeping mask is incorporated with an AI that determines what kind of sleeper you are and adjusts the lights beneath the eyewear accordingly. It’ll even slowly emit green light at some point during your sleep to suppress melatonin, allowing you to wake up naturally.
Getting consistent quality rest isn’t impossible. You just need to identify the source of your uneasiness and get the right tool to help you sleep.
