What is Electric Sleep?

A good night sleep is essential for functioning well during the day and most adults need around 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night. However, there are different sleep disorders, which can affect your mental, physical and emotional health, safety and quality of life differently.   

According to a report published by the Sleep Health Foundation, one in 10 Australians have sleep disorder, while a report from 2019, revealed that over half are suffering from at least one chronic sleep symptom.

Experts estimate that around 70 million adults in US have sleep disorders and sleeping issues. Studies has suggested that lack of quality sleep can lead to weakened immune system and weight gain and that the poor sleep pattern may be a cause dementia later in life.

Whereas a quality sleep has many health benefits such as improved concentration, efficiency and productivity, decrease risk of cardiovascular diseases and strokes and maximises athletic performance.

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As many people around the world are sleeping less or have some sleeping disorder, which leads to decrease in quality sleep, many companies are seeing this is as an opportunity and are busy in developing sleep aid technologies.

Whether you need a soothing voice or bed that regulates your body temperature for a quality sleep, there are many products such as smart beds, wearable technology such as fitness trackers and external monitors that make your room perfect. These sleep devices optimise the sleep environment by regulating noise, light, humidity and temperature. These devices also claim to treat conditions like snoring, insomnia, circadian disorder, and sleep apnea.

Sleep disorder and respiratory physician Darren Mansfield, who is also deputy chair of the Sleep Health Foundation, said that sleep technology is not accurate as a laboratory-based sleep study, but they are progressing in that direction. These technologies allow people to monitor their routine, and it may become problematic if they become a bit enslaved by the data and start obsessing over the hours of sleep. This could lead to anxiety or rumination over the result and significance.  

So why opt for sleep devices, not pills

Nowadays, more and more people and doctors prefer non-pharmacological ways to treat insomnia and sleeplessness. Most of the time, doctors first start with the standard advice of good sleep hygiene –like going to bed at a regular time, not drinking coffee too late in the day, not having too much alcohol and others.

Natural remedies, yoga, meditation, cognitive behavioural therapy, and now electric sleep techniques have become popular drug-free ways to treat insomnia.

Also read: Five guiding philosophies for a successful life

Best gadgets for a good night’s sleep

Here are some of the latest innovative sleep aids for relieving insomnia and restlessness. 

1. Lumie Bodyclock Luxe 750DAB

It uses gradual and fading light to encourage a regular sleep pattern. Its various light effects aim to either help you feel pleasantly drowsy in the evening or energise you so you feel alert in the morning. With its sunset and sunrise feature you can fall asleep and rise with help of authentic pink, red and orange colours. The gadget also has an alarm clock with 20 different sleeps and wake-up sounds to choose from. It also works as a radio and night light and it is recommended for those who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. 

2. Philips Hue white & colour starter kit

Philips Hue smart lights contain a variety of different shades of white, which can imitate sun at night, gradually dimming down to make you fall asleep. There is also a wake-up routine, so you are not so distressed by your alarm.

3. Dodow

Dodow encourages deep breathing techniques to help you fall asleep when you are desperately trying to nod off. The wireless device is placed on the bedside table and with a tap of your finger, it projects a gentle beam of blue light that contracts and expands for eight minutes with an idea to rhythm your breathe with the light. It claims that the device gradually slows breathing to six breaths per minutes, which calm your brain and puts you in a relaxed state.

Also read: How do we beat our digital dependency?

4. Fitbit Versa 2 Smartwatch

Fitbit is best known for its fitness tracking abilities to keep your heart healthy but its latest Fitbit Versa 2 smartwatch can help you track and understand your sleeping patterns.  It shows for how long you were sleeping and how much time you spent in deep, light and REM sleep. It than assigns a sleep score that indicates if you had a quality sleep or not. Its sense also features a smart wake alarm that is meant to wake you up.

5. Calm

The clam app offers a wide range of stories and meditations to make you fall asleep faster if stress or anxiety keeps you awake at night. It is ranked the No. 3 app for Health & Fitness and you can fall asleep to the voices of some of your favorite celebrities.

6. Hybrid duvet

Hybrid duvet from Simba helps in finding the ideal temperature with its temperature controlling features. It uses an astronaut-inspire temperature regulation quality called stratus which release heat when you start to feel cold and traps the excess heat when you’re feeling too hot.

Its filling is evenly spread out and is made up of 100% recycled plastic bottles, which allow more time to sleep.

There are many other sleeping gadgets that has something for every kind of sleeper such as the Morphee sleep aid, Yoto player, Kokoon relax headphones, Casper Glow light, SNOO smart baby bassinet, Homni, Sound asleep pillow, Nanu hot & not duvet, Netatmo indoor air quality monitor, Sleepace Sleep Dot, Flare Audio sleeep, Simba Hybrid pillow, Barisieur tea and coffee brewing alarm clock and many more.

Also read: Which UK companies are considering a 4-day workweek?

Some good habits for good sleep

• Set a routine to get better quality of sleep.
• Avoiding daytime naps.
• Going to bed at the same time each night will help you a lot
• Avoiding heavy meals before going to bed
• Avoid excessive alcohol even occasionally
• Exercise regularly in the morning and avoid exercising in evening hours close to bedtime
• Spend an hour before bed doing activities such as meditating, reading that can relax your brain and slow you down.
• Put away phones and tablets a few hours before you sleep.
• You can use sleep headbands, sleep inducers in getting your routine right

The Bottom line

There is a need to improve sleep as many people around the world are struggling with sleeplessness. Fixing your sleep-related disorder may take a while, but one can make small changes to daily habits to get a favourable outcome. These include listening to music or a spiritual discourse or an audiobook. These can help you calm down, drop your heart rate, and make you feel relaxed.

There is a growth in telemedicine for the management of sleep disorders and it is possible in future that artificial intelligence may provide some guidance in the management of sleep conditions.  Future innovation in sleep technology may be motivating and hopefully it will help people to get a better life.