WakeMate, an application and wristband for use with your phone, tracks your nightly sleeping patterns, and recommends a perfect time for you to wake up depending on how your body’s sleep cycle.
You simply snap the wristband on before you go to bed, tell your phone (iPhone, Blackberry, Android and others) the latest time you’d like to wake up, and the WakeMate application will set off your alarm someone within 20 minutes before that latest time.
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Get to sleep quicker without using sleeping pills while blocking out the snoring, loud neighbors or distracting noises in the night with a AcousticSheep SleepPhone Sleep Aid System. Developed by a physician, these headphone help patients fall asleep and stay asleep and are held in place by a soft, fleece headband so they won’t fall off or cause your ears to ache after a couple hours of use.
The headphones are only part of the system as a CD of binaural beats are included as well. Binaural beats are waves generated by the brain when exposed to slightly different tones in the right and left ears. For example, if the right ear hears a tone of 100Hz (a very deep low sound) and the left ear hears a tone of 110Hz (just a tad higher pitch than the 100Hz), then the brain will combine those tones as one pitch, pulsating at 10Hz. The principle of how this works is just basic the basic interference pattern of sound waves.
Binaural beats are especially cool because as you listen to the pulsating beats, your brainwaves will slowly conform to the frequency of the binaural beats. So if you wanted your brainwaves to function faster, then just dial up the beats. If you want to go to sleep, then bring the tones closer together for slower brainwaves.
Not only is a CD included of binaural beats, but you can download additional binaural beats from AcousticSheep.
Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $64.95
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Remember the Chillow (the chilled pillow)? Take that one step further, and you have the ChiliPad which cools your whole bed. Actually, it regulates the temperature of your bed, but since most folks seem to have more of a problem with the bed being too warm, they went with the ‘chill’ theme.
The ChiliPad is an advanced mattress pad that heats and cools your bed. You can tune the temperature to anywhere between 46 and 118F. Sleep research has shown that you sleep better at temperatures between 60 and 68F.
ChiliPad uses water instead of air, and it flows through the soft coils in the pad that you place on top of your mattress under your sheets.
Oh yes, if you’d like, you can just toss your mattress and get a ChiliBed.
Buy now!
Price: $397-$1005 (depending on size of pad)
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Fitbit is the latest in a growing number of sleep and health tracking devices. Fitbit sets itself apart in tracking both your sleep habits and phyiscal activity.
Fitbit is a small device that clips to a wristband or piece of clothing while you sleep or go about your daily activities. Its motion sensor gathers data constantly and every time you come into range of the included wireless basestation, it downloads the data and sticks it into your personalized page on the Fitbit website. You can share your data with friends from there if you’d like.
Fitbit tracks how long you sleep vs lay in bed, and how many times you woke up. On the activity front, Fitbit tracks your steps, the intensity and duration of your activity, calories burned and reports on all of it.
Fitbit is aggressively priced at $99 and there is no subscription fee for using their website. It may not be as sophisticated as devices made specifically for sleep OR activity, like the Zeo is for sleep or the Ripxx is for exercise, but it’s only 1 device and much cheaper.
Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $99.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Remember the Sleeptracker which tracks your sleep patterns based on your movement through the night? Well, they’ve got some competition in the form on an iPhone app called Sleep Cycle.
It uses the iPhone’s built-in gryoscope in a similar manner to the Sleeptracker. However, we’re doubtful of its accuracy as compared to the Sleeptracker because you have to place your iPhone somewhere on your bed, whereas you wear the Sleeptracker right on your wrist. Depending on how good/bad your bed is at transmitting motion, then Sleep Cycle is going to vary in its results.
We’ll give Sleep Cycle the win for the much better price ($0.99) although you do have to buy an iPhone first!
Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $0.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Woot! Another crazy alarm clock – this one makes you shoot hoops to disable snooze the alarm clock. By the time you make a basket, you’re probably going to be pretty worked up and awake.
I think after day one, I’d probably give up and just let the alarm continue!
Price: $16.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Sleep tracking devices are really starting to become more popular. The Zeo Personal Sleep Coach is a relatively new sleep aid that builds on the research and attempts to take sleep optimization to the next level.
Zeo consists of 2 basic parts – a headband that you wear to bed, and a bedside display/data gatherer. The Zeo Bedside Display shows you a visualization of how your last night’s sleep went as well as how it compared to previous nights.
One particularly nice feature is that all of the data is stored on an SD memory card that you can then pop into your computer for upload to the myZeo website for further analysis, and storage in your own sleep journal. Research has shown that a sleep journal (like other journaling methods) is an effective way to detect and correct issues with your sleep.
Like other sleep aids that we’ve featured in the past (SleepTracker, aXbo and ZZZ Checker), the Zeo looks for that optimal point in your sleep cycle to attempt waking you.
Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $249.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Scientific research has demonstrated how waking naturally to dawning sunlight has many benefits included feeling more rested, waking at an optimal point in your sleep cycles, and the follow-on benefits that flow from these.
Philips has a couple of consumer gadgets that meld sunrise simulation with an FM radio and/or natural sounds – the Wake-up Light. It works by gradually increasing the light starting 30 minutes before your pre-set alarm time.
There are 2 models of the Wake-up Light – one with and without an iPod dock, apart from which they are basically identical.
Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $179.99, $114 without iPod dock
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
The SenseWear from BodyMedia is an electronic gadget that you wear on your arm, that monitors your body’s main stats and gives you feedback on how you’re doing with your health and weight management.
In collaboration with the SenseWear website, users can track their nutrition and progress with up to date accurate information about their bodies – weight, metabolism, calories burned, sleep and more.
Key metrics tracked by SenseWear are Total Energy Expenditure (Calories burned); Active Energy Expenditure; Physical Activity Duration and Levels (METs); and Sleep Duration and Sleep Efficiency.
Gimme!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $299.99 plus $19/mo for website subscription
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
You already know how we love our alarm clocks here on GfG! Well we love the sound of this one, or more precisely, it loves the sound of us. You see, the Moshi alarm clock is voice-controlled. Start off by saying “Hello Moshi” and it will ask you for the command to perform.
Features include the typical alarm clock, but some other niceties like the current temperature, the date, sleep sounds and a night light. Moshi has a nice large, bright display and is elegantly styled.
Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $49.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
