All the Smart Tech I Use to Sleep Better
I didn’t sleep well. I often had trouble falling asleep, was easily awakened because I slept shallowly, tossed and turned and woke up tired, sometimes with headaches, even after a long night’s sleep. Over the past year, I’ve gradually adjusted every aspect of my sleep, from the bed itself to the climate, sound, and lighting in my room, and have ultimately resolved most of my sleep issues. Here’s everything I recommend based on various sleep-related issues.
If you have trouble falling asleep during the day
It is very important for your sleep that your body thinks it is night. Luckily, there are a number of brands that offer smart blackout curtains, so you can block out all the light from your windows with one command. I installed Rolli shades , a co-worker loved the Smartwingz , but I’m also excited about the Switchbot roller shades coming in February, which are inexpensive and adjustable to fit any window width.
The alternative is a mask, and I believe I’ve found the holy grail of smart sleep masks: Aura is pillow-soft, even if you sleep on your side. You can place layers of scented lavender inside and then use the Aura app to set up meditation programs or white noise to listen to, or you can simply use the mask as a Bluetooth speaker for whatever music you like. There is a light inside the mask so you can set an alarm and it will light up softly like a sunrise to wake you up. It controls all your senses and while I’ve never been a sleep mask person and found the idea of a scented smart mask absurd, I find it really relaxing and effective.
If you have trouble falling asleep at night
On nights when I know I need to go to bed, but I’m not quite ready yet, I go to bed with my Kindle, turn off the overhead lights, and turn on the calming program on my Nanoleaf lights. They emit soothing waves of light and movement around the room and I find they really have an impact on your mood.
If anxiety or a busy mind is keeping you from sleeping, a voice assistant can help. Whether you use Siri, Alexa or Google, let your assistant remind you of all your calendar items for the next day so you don’t feel like you’ve forgotten anything. If thoughts often pop into your head as you’re about to fall asleep, you can ask your voice assistant to remind you of them tomorrow rather than staying awake thinking about them. (You can also use them to make sure smart devices are turned off so you don’t have to reset.)
If you’re tossing and turning at night
Inability to fall asleep can be attributed to a number of factors such as climate and distractions, but ultimately the solution is how comfortable your body is in bed and how well your body is supported, which is decidedly not technological. While there are many websites and even apps that can help you choose beds, I have found that there is no substitute for going to the store and lying on each bed to try them out and find the one that’s right for you. Particularly if you are large or suffer from body pain, you may want to choose a bed made more traditionally from coil springs rather than foam. Foam can help in pillows. Stepping away from traditional down-filled pillow shapes, choose foam shapes that fit your body, not just under your head, but also between your knees or behind your back. I really liked the shapes of the Bearaby pillows, especially the Cuddler , which is a long body pillow that you can wrap around yourself.
If you wake up easily at night
You can use a smart speaker to drown out random background noise that might startle you. First, use your voice assistant to set your devices to Do Not Disturb while you sleep. Your smart speaker offers white noise options: You can ask your assistant to play standard white noise, but there are also plenty of natural options like whale song and rainforest. You can adjust the sound level as needed using your voice. Of course, if you prefer, you can also listen to music.
If you sleep too hot or cold
I have found that it works best to work with multiple forms of climate control. I have smart air conditioners and heaters. For the air conditioner, I use my Midea U-shape smart air conditioner , which I’ve had for a few years now; it works with my voice assistants and turns the smart program on and off in Google Home. For heating, I use a Smart Envi wall heater , which works the same way.
Setting the climate control in my bed was like a chef’s kiss. BedJet 3 blows hot or cold air into your bed, either into the soft top sheet or directly onto you, under the top sheet or blanket. You can set it for cold or hot air using an app on your phone or the remote control, but it will also allow you to create your own programs throughout the night. My favorite feature is the ten-minute burst of 110-degree air, perfect for slipping into bed on cold nights or freezing your toes first thing in the morning.
The solutions are also not only technical. Some sheets (brushed cotton) are designed for hot sleep and some are designed for cool sleep (linen), and choosing the right sheets can make a big difference for you.
If you have headaches or sinus problems at night
I often woke up with headaches or sinus problems that I thought were due to the air blowing directly on me. The fan I can really stand is any Dreo model – they have a “natural” setting that simulates a breeze. Plus, you can actually clean the Dreo fan —it’s completely disassembled, which means there’s less dust around that can irritate your sinuses. I added a smart air purifier that quickly adapts to the conditions in my room. I use Mila in my room to remove dust, pollen and dandruff and my headaches and nasal congestion are gone.
It also helped adjust the angle at which I sleep. Many brands offer powered underwear that will turn any bed into an adjustable one, allowing you to raise your head, knees or feet. I chose one from BedJet called Power Layer . Fine adjustments can keep your head upright enough to prevent you from snoring or relieve nasal congestion. You use the remote or the app to connect and make changes.
If snoring keeps you awake
If you’re wondering if you snore, an app like SnoreLab will provide some very humiliating evidence by listening to you all night. This may be the impetus for you to take a sleep apnea test, which you can now do at home using, you guessed it, smart monitoring devices .
If you wake up tired
How well you sleep depends on more than just how long you sleep. I started measuring my sleep quality using the Oura ring. This wearable device uses heart rate, breathing, skin and body temperature, movement and heart rate variability to create a sleep efficiency score. Using the metrics above, Oura determines when you enter REM and deep sleep and for how long.
Although seeing how long I stayed in bed compared to how long I slept was often disheartening when I opened my eyes, the effectiveness score generated by these metrics was more useful in determining how effective the various changes I made were into your sleep ritual. Oura also provides a daily overallsleep score , which is a combination of efficiency, tossing and turning activity during sleep, amount of time spent in REM or deep sleep, and how quickly you fell asleep. If you don’t like the idea of a wearable device, you can try non-wearable devices like the Chilipad sleep tracker or the Withins sleep tracker .