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Nokia Sleep review: Smart home controls don’t live up to the hype
When Nokia officially took over the Withings brand in 2017, it inherited many of its products, like the Activité watches, the WiFi Body scales and a wireless blood pressure monitor (that was relaunched as the Nokia BPM+). The one product it didn't carry over was the Aura, a combination lamp and bed sensor designed to track your sleep patterns and shine various shades of light to help you sleep or wake up. Nokia discontinued it, much to the consternation of many Aura users at the time.
Tech wants to solve our tech-related sleep problems
Technology is bad for sleep. It keeps us constantly exposed to an endless cycle of bad news, and the blue light emitted by smartphone and tablet displays suppresses our ability to produce melatonin. Combine that with the feelings of inadequacy generated by watching other people's picture-perfect lives on social media, and it's no surprise that we're all restless. Sleep technology exists to solve this issue, and there were plenty of companies exhibiting new devices here at CES 2018. Many of them intend to tell you how well, or poorly, you have slept each night, in the hope you'll make better decisions the following day. But, as well as becoming more commonplace, sleep gadgets are going to become far more diverse, at least according to what we saw at the show.
Somnox’s robotic pillow is designed to snuggle
We're all having trouble sleeping, and at least one group of researchers in the Netherlands believes it's because we're not cuddling enough. That's the thinking behind Somnox, a breathing robot that's designed to nestle in your arms and make you think that you've got a special friend over. At the same time, the unit will offer up soothing sounds, like a heartbeat, lullabies or nature sounds, depending on your preferences. And, it's entirely possible that you'll form an attachment to the giant gray McNugget.
Dreamlight's smart eye mask is designed to help you sleep
For everyone but the journalists covering the show, CES 2018 is apparently all about catching up on, and improving the quality of, your sleep. One company focused on getting you better-rested is Dreamlight, which is building an eye-mask that, so its founder claims, will help you get some more shut-eye.
The always-cold pillow is no longer a fever dream
The cold side of the pillow is one of life's oddly satisfying phenomena. But no sooner have you felt its gratifying chill caress your cheek than it vanishes. The cold side of the pillow could be more than just a pleasant sensation for your conscious mind, though. It's pretty well known that your body dumps heat as you drift off to sleep and your core temperature follows a rough nightly cycle, much like brain activity, hormone levels, breathing patterns and so on. There are various studies that suggest you can game the system, cool yourself down and minimize those restless nights. That's the intent behind the Moona smart pillow pad: A temperature-regulating pad that keeps the cold side of the pillow cold, indefinitely.
Fitbit's new sleep-tracking feature works well (most of the time)
It is a truth universally acknowledged that getting enough quality sleep is important for your well-being. The growth in the number of devices offering sleep-tracking features in recent years shows that companies are catching on. But sleep is a difficult metric to measure and understand, and most trackers these days can tell only when you've been asleep and awake. Fitbit's latest wearable goes one step further than the competition, incorporating your heart-rate data into its algorithms to estimate what sleep state you're in. The $150 Alta HR improves on the original, with a new heart rate monitor that constantly keeps tabs on your pulse. A software update that arrives on the Fitbit app today provides deeper analysis of how you're sleeping. The new feature sounds potentially helpful, but after a few days with the new Alta, I don't know if I can trust that it's accurate. I also wish it were more consistent and easier to understand.
I took a nap on Sleep Number's auto-adjusting smart bed
I've never spent more than a couple of hundred bucks on a bed. After spending a few minutes with Sleep Number's 360 smart bed, however, I'm tempted to reconsider. Why? Because it adapts to my every move. As you toss and turn in the night, the bed will automatically recognize this movement and naturally contour to your body. It will also adjust the firmness of the mattress so if you need more support for your back, for instance, you'll receive the necessary assistance without lifting a finger. These smarts are paired with an adjustable base that will tilt your head upwards if you start snoring in the middle of the night. (Not that I ever snore or anything.)
Kello trains your sleeping habits without using sensors
While there are already a handful of devices that claim to improve our sleep quality, one little startup from Hong Kong's Brinc IoT accelerator thinks that it can do a better job. Kello is a sleep trainer that comes in the form of an internet radio alarm slash Bluetooth speaker slash home automation hub, and unlike some of the competition, it doesn't use any bed sensor, clip-on device nor wearable to track the user's sleep activity. Instead, it's all about leveraging "simple, effective and scientifically proven techniques" from specialists to help us sleep faster, wake up better and ultimately change our lifestyle.
The Zeeq smart pillow is the Swiss Army knife of bedding
Sleep tracking has never taken off the same way activity tracking has, probably because no one wants to wear their smartwatch to bed. (That's when you should be charging it anyway.) The Zeeq from REM-Fit aims to fix that by taking the tech off of your wrist and putting it in a place that's a lot more comfortable when you're asleep: inside your pillow.
