Technology is great, but tech gadgets that enhance the quality of your sleep are even better.
According to health experts, a lack of sleep does more than ruin your morning and makes you irritable. Poor sleep is in fact a major risk factor for obesity. The sleep-deprived also have trouble concentrating which can lead to accidents or mistakes at work. Not getting enough sleep also lowers your immunity, keeps your blood sugar levels up, and increases your stress levels.
To ensure nothing gets in the way of your sleep this year, here are five tech innovations that will help you get a blissful slumber.
1. Smart beds, mattresses, and pillows
Cutting-edge sleep technology is now integrated into mattresses, beds, pillows, and duvets to help you sleep better.
Jonathan Prichard, CEO of MattressInsider says, “Smart mattresses and beddings have sensors that analyze your sleep patterns, provide data on your sleep quality, and give recommendations that can help improve your sleep.”
Other smart beddings such as dual-zone climate-controlled mattresses and duvets ensure you sleep in comfort as they have dual temperature zones. Additionally, you can even get pillows nowadays that come with in-built speakers that play music or other soothing sounds to help you fall asleep. Other smart bedding tech trends include:
- Sleep tracking
- Climate control
- Relaxation features
- Adjustable and height support features
- Smart fabric technology
- Anti-snoring features
- Internet of things and IFTTT channels
2. Sleep wearables and trackers
Sleep wearables and trackers capture your body data as you sleep. Such data may include your heart rate, snoring, respiration, body temperature, and sleep duration.
Other trackers also monitor the environmental and lifestyle factors that affect your sleep, such as your stress levels and your bedroom light, noise, temperature, and humidity levels.
The captured data offers you insights into your sleep quality and the steps you can take to improve it. For instance, if you find out that your sleep is often disrupted when your bedroom is hot, then you’ll take the right steps to ensure your room is cooler.
Similarly, if you note that you sleep better when you skip caffeine in the morning, you’ll eliminate caffeine in your diet. Some examples of great sleep trackers that you can try out include:
- Fitbit Versa 3: A smartwatch that gives you a daily sleep score and has an in-built Alexia voice assistant
- Amazon Halo: A wearable that tracks the quantity of your sleep and gives expert suggestions to improve it
- Garmin Vivosmart 4: A swim-friendly fitness and sleep tracker that tracks your sleep stages and sleep movement
- Beddit 3.5: A non-contact sleep monitor that you can put beneath your sheets to track your sleep time and sleeping environment
- S+: A sleep monitor that sits on your bedside table and accurately monitors your breathing, boy movement, and heart rate during sleep
3. Sleep apps
Sleep apps such as Headspace, Sleep as Android, Pzizz, Noisli, Calm, and Slumber, among others, have great features that are designed to help your body calm down, ready for sleep.
Some of the apps offer mediations, bedtime stories, white noise, soothing sounds, and sweet sounds of nature to help you drift to sleep. Sleep apps are great for restless toddlers who need some soothing during sleep, but they are also popular with adults on a hunt for some sleep help.
4. Sleep earplugs
Noise negatively affects your sleep quality. If your partner snores or there is a lot of night noise disturbing your sleep, then sleep or noise-canceling earplugs can do you a lot of good.
But not all sleep earplugs are good for you. Low-quality earplugs can cause ear infections, which can lead to hearing loss if not treated in time. Some of the features to look out for when buying sleep earplugs include comfort, price, smart features, type, and versatility. Here’s a look at the different types of sleep earplugs you can buy.
- Over-the-ear sleep headphones: These are best if you sleep on your back or your side.
- In-ear sleep headphones: These are the most common earplugs, but you need to ensure that they fit right. In-ear headphones can also increase the bacteria levels in your ear if you wear them for many hours.
- Headband earphones: These earplugs are highly recommended for side sleepers or for those who love to listen to soothing sounds as they sleep. When buying the headband, earplugs ensure they are made of a light material that doesn’t sweat too much.
- Wireless sleep headphones: If you hate cables, you’ll love the wireless headphones. When buying these earplugs, ensure they have long battery life.
- Noise-canceling sleep headphones: These are perfect if you want to cancel noise during sleep. Active noise-canceling headphones use signal processing to cancel out noise, while passive noise-canceling headphones specifically block the noise from reaching your ears.
5. Sleep robot
The Somnox sleep robot is a more personable sleep-promoting innovation compared to the other sleep gadgets noted above. The robot is developed to help you sleep faster, longer, and better. It achieves this by stimulating your breathing ability into slow, deep breathing to help you relax and sleep. To achieve this, you have to hold the robot close to your body to feel the Somnox sensational breathing.
The Somnox sleep robot is a bit pricey, and most people may not be too open to the idea of having a robot for a bedmate. However, soft robotic technology may just be the next tech trend that will soon be added to existing sleep technologies.
Final thoughts
If you’re struggling to get a good night’s sleep, you aren’t alone. According to a CDC study, 1 in 3 American adults is sleep-deprived. Undoubtedly, there is a need to enhance our sleep quality. Fortunately, there are a variety of innovations that will help you sleep better this year.