9 Gadgets to Help You Get a Better Nights Sleep
Bringing tech into the bedroom can be more harmful than helpful. Glancing at your phone before hitting the sack may be distracting and, more important, the blue light its screen emits is known to make falling asleep more difficult. But that's not true for all gadgets. These smart-home devices want to invade your bedroom with the aim of improving your slumber. MUSE HEADBAND, 249, Falling asleep can be more difficult than staying asleep. With its headband, Muse hopes to train the brain to handle stress more efficiently, making it easier to relax. The gadget uses sensors to measure brain activity and then feeds that data to an app that guides you through meditation exercises. A number of less expensive or free meditation apps attempt to do much of the same without the headband. HERE ONE SMART EARBUDS, 299.99, Sometimes earplugs or the sound of the TV isn't enough to drown out a partner's snoring. Earbuds like these can help by allowing you to progressively drown out the volume of the world around you. And if you typically need white noise to fall asleep, you can turn on a filter for that type of sound through the accompanying app. APPLE IPHONE, 399769, Staring at the blue light coming from your phone before bed can make it harder for your body to produce melatonin, the hormone that affects circadian rhythms. Apple's Night Shift feature lessens this effect by making the display colors look warmer to reduce blue light. It can also remind you to get to bed at the same time to even out your sleep habits. S+ SLEEP MONITOR, 129.99, Many devices that track sleep require special sensors worn on the body or embedded in a mattress. ResMed's S+ claims to monitor without making physical contact. Instead, it uses motion-detection technology to pick up your tosses and turns throughout the night. It can also assess whether the temperature and lighting conditions in your room are preventing you from sleeping better. SLEEP NUMBER IT BED, 1,099, The firmness of this mattress can be adjusted via a smartphone app. Built-in sensors can also track your heart rate, breathing and movement to relay insights about how you sleep. There's no remote, though, which means you'll have to reach for your phone each time you want to adjust the bed. SMART NORA, 279, Snoring isn't only disturbing for those sharing a bed with you. It can disrupt your own sleep and may be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. To prevent snoring, Nora activates a small pump that sits under your pillow when it detects snores, which moves your head to stimulate the throat muscles. It might not work for fidgety sleepers who don't always stay put. BEDDI SMART ALARM CLOCK, 99.99, Beddi is the Swiss Army knife of alarm clocks. In addition to shining a warm light and streaming Spotify tunes to wake you up, it can charge your smartphone, control your other connected devices and read you the weather and traffic updates when you wake. PHILIPS WAKE-UP LIGHT, 169.99, A dark room can make it difficult to get out of bed, while strong sunlight may be too harsh on the eyes early in the morning. Philips' lamp aims to mimic natural sunlight, its intensity gradually increasing within 30 minutes of waking up. And while it does let you choose one of five sounds or an FM radio for your wake-up call, it doesn't connect to your Spotify account like the Beddi or Withings Aura can. FITBIT CHARGE 2, 149.95, If waking up to an audio alarm isn't effective or endurable for you, try a fitness tracker such as the Charge 2. The wristband can wake you up with a gentle buzz as well as provide data about your sleep duration and quality. This spring the company promises it will be able to distinguish between deep, light and REM sleep, a feature that some competing smart wristbands have had for years. Read TIME's affiliate link policy., Correction The original version of this story incorrectly referred to one of the sleep gadgets. It is the Philips Wake-Up Light, not the Philips Hue Wake-Up Light.