Gadgets to Help You Sleep

If you are new to this blog, you will soon come to realize that we are all about rest and relaxation. Not only do we believe that good sleeping patterns will improve your lifestyle in general, we know it. Therefore we try to help our readers to make informed choices about sleep. We are well aware of the fact that everyone has his or her own lifestyle. That is why, in today’s blog post, we’ll be telling you about gadgets that can improve your sleeping patterns…

That is right folks, in this day and age, there is a gadget for everything! You can control your TV with your mobile phone. The heaters can be switched on via your phone. You can fly a drone from your phone or iPad. There are these watches that monitor your heart rate, shows your altitude above sea level, tells you how many steps you’ve taken or how far you walked. There is even a gadget that tells you how many eggs are left in your fridge. It is crazy out there! There are literally gadgets everywhere! Heck, there are even shops that cater specifically for gadget crazy people. And if the Japanese can have a gadget to lift up their toilet seats, why can’t you have one to help you sleep?

How can gadgets make you sleep?

I’m quite sure some of you are asking this question, right? Normally people use gadgets while they are awake. So how do you want a gadget to improve your sleeping patters? Isn’t that just crazy talk for gullible people? Could be, but no! There are real, tried and tested gadgets out there that will help you sleep better at night. Some of the gadgets helps you to fall asleep, while others monitor your sleeping patters and there are some that wake you up more naturally than an alarm clock can. So if you are a gadgetty guy or girl, this blog post if for you.

Smart Bedding

What? What is smart bedding!? I just had to put this one first, because when I read about it I was mind blown. Maybe you already know about this invention, and I’m behind the times, but wow!

Luna is a mattress company in the USA and they came up with this idea to create smart bedding. In essence, the Luna smart mattress cover, similar to a sheet, can link up to your mobile phone and perform all sorts of smart functions. You can set the temperature of your bed without going near your bedroom, for instance. It gets better. Luna keeps track of your sleeping patterns, body heat and heart rate (this kind of makes the rest of my post redundant, but keep reading anyway). Over time it forms a profile of your sleeping patters and adjust the temperature according to your needs.

Your sheets now has Wi-Fi capabilities. How’s that for a cool gadget?

What’s more is that this smart bedding caters for both you and your spouse. The temperature can be cold on your side, and warm on your spouse’s, or vice-versa. It would be ideal for me and my wife, because she likes to sleep under a pile of blankets and I prefer a light sheet. Luna can make your sleep free of playing tug-of-war with the blankets.

And last bet definitely not least, Luna smart bedding can communicate with the rest of your smart appliances. Let’s say for instance your coffee machine has Wi-Fi capabilities (mine doesn’t, but yours might), Luna will know when you are about to wake up and switch on the coffee machine in advance, so you don’t have to do it. How cool is that?

Even though Luna smart bedding sounds absolutely amazing, I couldn’t help but think about the horror film potential of this invention. Think about it, “Luna Strikes Back! – Tired of being slept on night after night, the sheets decided to take revenge… Or maybe, “The Bedding’s Revenge – One morning, after being tossed and turned in the washing machine one time too many, Luna began formulating a plan…”

Jokes aside, if your body temperature is well regulated, your sleep improves tremendously.  This is definitely one of the coolest sleep related gadgets I’ve ever heard of.

Smart Pillow

Here is a nice add-on to your smart bed sheets. If your sheets aren’t doing the job, you can get the Sunrise Smart Pillow to help you sleep better at night. Or more specifically, to make the transition from sleeping to waking smooth and sunny. Yes, sunny. The Sunrise Smart Pillow has built in lights that wakes you up in a natural way. Waking from the sun is a lot healthier than waking up in the dark. Research has shown that being exposed to sunlight, or bright light early in the morning calibrates your body to your surroundings. More importantly, if you wake up to sunshine, your body will know when it is time to go to bed.  And going to bed at the right time is crucial for any healthy sleeping pattern.

Apart from giving you a healthy dose of bright light nice and early, you can also make your pillow play you some relaxing music to help you drift off to sleep.

And to go with the Smart Pillow, a Smart Pillow Pad

The Moona Smart Pillow pad helps you to regulate the temperature of your pillow. It sounds similar to the Luna smart sheets and a bit like the smart pillow itself, but there are differences.

The inventors of Moona did some research on how your body temperature behaves at night. They found that it is easier to fall asleep in a cool environment. (This is nothing new, we’ve written about it in previous blog posts). So they created the Moona pillow pad to help you cool down faster. Even though you do not lose most of your temperature through your head, as a lot of people tend to believe, keeping your head cool does help to lower your core body temperature. When your head temperature stays regulated, the rest of your body heat tends to stay regulated as well. This makes for better and deeper sleep.

What’s cool about the pad is that you don’t have any electrical wiring beneath your head as you sleep. The pad, a water envelope protected by a memory foam sheath, gets coupled to a noiseless machine on the bed stand that regulates the temperature. Which means you won’t wake up with a shock! On the contrary, if you sync your alarm clock with your Moona, the pillow pad will slowly start warming up as wake up time approaches. Just like falling asleep is easier and more natural under cool conditions, feeling warm when you wake up improves your sleeping patterns.

So if you can’t afford the Luna, get the Moona!

Smart Sleep Buds

These are not your run of the mill earbuds. You won’t give them to your kid to use at the school gala, for instance. If you struggle to sleep at night because your partner is a snorer, you might want to give these a shot. Bose designed smart earplugs or earbuds, that can help you to fall asleep even if you live next to to a train station. Apart from doing what any earplug is supposed to do (block out noise), this smart bud plays you soothing noises to help you drift off to dreamland. You can customize what you hear via an app on your phone and you can also set an alarm, so that the earplugs wake you up.

Smart Pajamas

Just when you thought that you’ve heard it all! Unlike the other gadgets I’ve described so far, the Under Armour smart PJ’s can’t connect to your phone or make you coffee. Bummer, I know.

But just because the Athlete Recovery Sleepwear doesn’t have Wi-Fi capabilities, doesn’t mean it’s not cool (pun intended). It is the opposite of cool. The Under Armour design team worked with a pro footballer to design these hi-tech PJ’s. The idea behind it is that the inside of the material, which is covered in hexagonal mineral enriched fabrics, radiate the body heat you generate whilst sleeping back into your body. In the form of Far Infrared (FIR). There are two kinds of Infrared, Near Infrared (NIR) and Far Infrared. The difference in name comes from the difference in wavelength between the two types of Infrared, but we won’t go into that right now.

What you need to know is that scientific studies have shown that FIR can help people recover from pain at a quicker than normal rate. It is used in treating arthritis and has been proved to improve blood circulation. The Athlete Recovery Sleepwear was specifically created to help athletes recover faster while they sleep. And in the words of a very old Shield roll-on TV advertisement; “If it can work for sportsmen, it can work for me!”.

So if you are an athlete and you have problems with sleeping and recovery, this is for you! Try it out!

Smart Anti-snore Machine

A Canadian company came up with this idea. Nora is an anti-snore machine hat you put next to your bed when you go to sleep. We all know that snoring can be bothersome, especially to your spouse or housemates. It is also bad for your own health and might cause problems such as sleep apnea.

So what must you do to stop the snoring? The first thing to do is to not sleep on your back. If that doesn’t work you can go read up about snore-breaking habits on last weeks blog post. While you read up on snoring, I’ll go make myself a warm cup of Rooibos tea so long… Done reading already> Wow, that was fast! So, if none of the techniques you just read about works, try Nora.

Nora the anti-snora’ is a two part machine. It consist of a microphone receptor that you put on your night stand, and a thin envelope that you slide underneath your pillow. When you start snoring, the detector picks up the sound and tells the sleeve/envelope beneath your pillow to inflate slightly. This will cause your head to move gently and it might make you stop snoring. If you really want to stop snoring, you should really check out this cool little gadget. It might be just what you need.

Another Smart Pillow-fitting

It seems like stuffing things into your pillow is the best way to get some good rest in these days. The Chrona pillow insert is no exception. Similar to the Moona and the Nora, Chrona is also a sleeve/envelope that you put into your pillowcase to hell you sleep. This one tracks your sleeping patterns and plays low frequency sounds to boost your deep sleep, and high frequency sounds when your body starts waking up. Apparently your body responds well to deep, soothing sounds whilst asleep, and Chrona makes use of that to improve the quality of your sleep.

Smart Breather

If you struggle to fall asleep because of anxiety, this might be the one for you. Falling to sleep while you are thinking stressful thoughts is not easy. A lot of the time people tell you that the best way to clear you head is to just breathe. But we all know it’s not that simple. Breathing, although we do it naturally most of the time, can sometimes be very difficult to control.

If you struggle to regulate your breathing when you get into bed, consider getting an app that helps you to focus on breathing in, and out. And in… And out… You get the picture. The 2breathe gadget does just that. It comes with a strap that you put around your torso to measure your breathing patterns. This information is then translated to an app on your phone, which plays soothing tones to help you breathe regularly.

The Power Switch

Let’s say you do not have access to any of these gadgets that we’ve spoken about. How can you go about getting in enough sleep? There is another, rather simple method that I haven’t discussed with you yet. Have you ever heard of the power switch? It is that button on your PlayStation, Xbox, TV or PC that you press when you want to start playing or watching. Consider pressing it to switch the machine back off again. Closed eyes are more conducive to proper rest than “glued to the screen” eyes. Just putting it out there…

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what I am going to do now. Sleep well, computer. Sleep well, fellow gadget lovers.