As lifestyle tech and electronics surge forward and everything gets “smart”er, we’re able to do everything from control our thermostats with our devices to play with cats via the internet. Even sleep, one of the human body’s most basic functions, is becoming more plugged in. Let’s take a look at some ways researchers and developers are “hacking” your sleep.
APPS AND DATA
There’s an app for everything, including sleep. Ranging in price, sleep apps can project soothing lights and sounds to help you drift off, record every moment and variation in your night and report it back to you in summation, and wake you in the timeliest of ways when you’re likely to rouse as non-groggy as possible. For the organizational and data obsessed, leveraging your lifestyle doesn’t have to stop once you hit the pillow.
Start your sleep-app search with some of these popular options:
SLEEPBOT
Using your phone’s accelerometer, Sleepbot charts the quality of your sleep. The more you toss and turn, the less restful sleep you’re bound to have, and Sleepbot will present you with a chart each morning detailing your night’s activities. The accelerometer also serves as a “smart” alarm. The alarm wakes you within 30 minutes of your desired wake-up time based on your movements to avoid pulling you out of a deep sleep. Sleepbot allows you to add notes to your data, like “stressful day”, to help track your sleep.
SLEEP CYCLE
Sleep Cycle performs very similar functions to Sleepbot, with a few differences. It asks you nightly to set your alarm instead of setting routine weekday/weekend alarm times, and offers a Sleep Aid function that plays soothing music or sounds as you fall asleep. But like Sleepbot and most other sleep apps out there, Sleep Cycle uses your phone’s accelerometer to monitor you and wake you up at the most optimal moment.
WEARABLES AND GADGETS
The Jawbone UP wristband functions very much like the apps we’ve discussed, only it’s a wearable. The wristband also tracks your movements and vibrates to wake you at an ideal point in your sleep cycle. It does transmit its data to a companion app that presents information to you in chart form.
Sleep Shield device covers are overlays for your device screens to cut down your exposure to blue light, which is the culprit behind why backlit screens interfere with your sleep. Blocking blue light can help you still indulge in screen-time before sleep.
Has monitoring your sleep become as much as a routine for you as sleep itself? Keep all your sleep-related electronics in perfect working order with Ensil’s expert circuit board repair team. If your device is struggling, head on over to www.ensil.com to check out our Express Repair Service or get a free, no-obligation quote.
Repairing and remanufacturing electronic components isn’t all we do! Along the vein of this article, we’re proud to say that we are becoming more active within the medical technology wearables field. Sleep may be key to restoring and resting your body, but sometimes your body needs some extra help.
Introducing Vastusys, a medical device that helps individuals regain mobility after suffering injury, stroke, or other disorders. Vastusys is a sophisticated electronics system based on both hardware and software that simulates decisions usually made by the brain to facilitate mobility or the movements of the limbs. Signals are received by the Vastusys control module through Bluetooth, are analyzed, and are then again transmitted via Bluetooth to different parts of the body. For more information, visit www.vastusys.com .