Sleep
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Smartwatch implants help track elephant sleep patterns
Humans are obsessed with sleep. We've not getting enough of it, and the tech world is flooded with wearables that confirm this fact. Now, scientists hope using activity monitors to study how and why animals sleep will help us get a better night's rest.
Sleep Number's smart bed adjusts to your nighttime fidgeting
There's more to a good night's sleep than turning in early. Alongside a decent diet, and avoiding the temptations of caffeine and smartphone screens at night, it's important to have a comfortable bed. Sleep Number is taking this to the extreme with the 360 smart bed, a contraption that subtly adjusts to your movements in the night. If you roll onto your side, for instance, the bed will acknowledge this and alter one of two air chambers in the mattress, matching the shape of your body. Switch to your back and the bed will tilt your head upwards if you start snoring.
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.
Apple Watch could soon track your sleep and fitness levels
The Apple Watch is billed as a fitness-focused device, but it doesn't really make sense of fitness data -- you're supposed to interpret the numbers yourself. However, Apple might soon give its wristwear some added smarts. Bloomberg sources claim that the Apple Watch will get apps that track sleeping patterns and fitness levels. It's not certain how the sleep tracking would work (most likely through motion), but the watch would gauge your fitness by recording the time it takes for your heart rate to drop from its peak to its resting level.
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.
App study reveals one in three of us aren't getting enough sleep
If you get less than seven hours' of sleep a night, you're among the one in three Americans who aren't getting enough zzz's. A team of researchers from the University of Michigan used the data they gathered from an anti-jetlag app they released a few years ago to study the roles society and biology play in our sleep schedules. They got some pretty interesting information out of the app: for instance, people in the Netherlands seem to get the highest average sleep (8 hours and 12 minutes), while folks in Japan and Singapore get the lowest (7 hours, 24 minutes).
Philips' latest Hue lights help you sleep
Philips has smart Hue light bulbs that produce flashy colors, but what about bulbs that change just enough to give you a good night's rest? You're set after today. The lighting firm is trotting out Hue white ambiance lights that offer color temperatures which mimic natural light, helping you sleep naturally. Combined with new "routines" in an upcoming version of the Hue app, they can shift gradually to reflect day and night cycles -- a sleep mode can use dimming light to replicate the sunset, for example, while "wake up" brightens the area. There's even a nightlight mode to help kids get back to sleep after wandering the hallway. Logically, the new Hue offering should also be useful for creating different moods. You could have cool, crisp lighting in a workspace, or warmer temperatures in the living room.
World's first 'active' sleep monitor keeps tabs on brain waves
Neurotechnology company Rythm launched both itself and its first product on Thursday, called the Dreem. The Dreem is a wearable device laden with EEG sensors. However, unlike other systems that utilize similar technology, the Dreem reportedly does more than simply record and analyze your sleep patterns. If, for example, the device recognizes the user is in a specific deep sleep pattern, it will "stimulate sound to keep the user in deep sleep for an extended period." The $350 system will also reportedly be able to rouse users at the optimal time to avoid morning grogginess. Additionally, it will record and analyze sleep patterns with its associated iOS or Android app.
Humans are smart because we sleep weird
A new study claims to have learned one of the reasons that humans were able to rapidly evolve beyond rival primates, and it's all down to our weird sleeping patterns. Researchers at Duke University, as reported by the New York Times, believe that our seven-hours-of-straight-shut-eye sleep cycle is something of an aberration. By comparison, chimpanzees enjoy 11.5 hours of rest, but our shorter run enabled us to get a much deeper, more dream-filled snooze. Humans, it seems, have above-average quantities of REM sleep, enabling us to slice valuable hours off the amount of time we're laid up.
Experts say phones need a 'bedtime mode' to fix our sleep
We've all done it: you've gone to bed early in order to catch up on some much needed sleep, only to lay there for hours staring at your phone until you're no longer tired. Some reports believe handsets shouldn't get all the blame for our poor sleep schedules, but we've known for some time that those glowing displays aren't helping. The best solution would be to turn devices off before going to bed, but leading sleep experts are also calling for device makers to include an automatic "bedtime mode" to help us drift off easier at night.
Don't blame your phone for a poor sleep schedule, study finds
You've probably read an article or two about the negative effects of staring at a screen before going to bed (hell, you've probably read one of them while in bed). But, a study recently published in Current Biology finds that we may be blaming our illuminated robots for no reason. Poor robots. Many "screens are bad for sleep" stories carry the assumption that before electricity, smartphones and laptops, people slept longer -- but it's difficult to pin down how long our ancestors spent in dream-land, The Economist says. To tackle this issue, two researchers observed three groups living pre-industrial lives: the Hadza of northern Tanzania, the Ju/'hoansi San of South Africa's Kalahari Desert and the Tsimané in Bolivia. After 1,165 days collecting data, researchers found the average sleep time among these groups was 6.5 hours a night. In industrial societies, the average is 7.5 hours per night, The Economist writes. So, scroll away, sleepy readers. Until the next study, at least. [Image credit: Alamy]
Lasers help prove parts of the brain 'sleep' while you're awake
Have you ever spaced out in the middle of a conversation without dozing off completely? MIT scientists now have a better idea why: only part of your brain is sleeping while the rest stays awake. Neuroscientists always suspected that, but the MIT team proved it in mice by using "optogenetics" to stimulate a part of the brain associated with sleep. They showed that the "thalamic reticular nucleus" (TRN) not only triggers slow sleep waves across the brain, but controls individual regions as well. The research could lead to safer anesthetic techniques and improved drugs for insomniacs.
Withings unveils a sleep-savvy clock and more Android support
Like the idea of Withings' Aura improving your sleep cycles, but don't need a $300 gadget tracking every last nuance of your slumber? You're in luck. Withings is rolling out a lower-cost device, the $190 Connected Alarm Clock, that keeps the sleep-regulating light and sound patterns while ditching the biometric sensor. And speaking of audio, both the clock and the Sleep System are getting a Spotify tie-in -- you can now use the streaming service's music catalog to fall asleep or wake up, complete with suggested playlists based on both their effectiveness and your genre tastes.
ASUS VivoWatch review: a fitness watch with style and shortcomings
My wife often says I'm fat, but that's hardly a motivation for me to resume my exercise routine. Then the ASUS VivoWatch landed on my desk, so I had no choice but to get back on the treadmill for your amusement. To keep things short, it turns out that this fitness-centric smartwatch does have a couple of compelling features that made me interested in getting fit again -- more so than the other basic (as in no heart rate monitoring) fitness trackers that I've long left in the drawer. Also, the VivoWatch can pair with both iOS plus Android, and costs just under $150 in Taiwan, meaning it'll be going head to head with the similarly priced Fitbit Charge HR around the world. So is ASUS' first fitness device worth trying? Or should you stick to some more mature offerings? Let's take a look.
Withings' sleep helper now uses Nest's thermostat to keep you cool
Withings' Aura sleep system can only do so much to help you rest by itself. Wouldn't it be nice if it could keep the climate just right, too? It can now -- the Aura just got support for Nest's learning thermostat. When they're linked up, the Nest will maintain an ideal temperature for sleep (around 64F to 68F, or 18C to 20C) once you're unconscious, and revert back to its earlier settings once you've woken up. It's a simple addition, and it won't be cheap at about $550 for the pair. Still, that cost might be justified if you frequently jolt awake because you're freezing or roasting.
Pzizz, now free and on the iPad, helps you get to sleep
Pzizz is an app designed to help you get in a good power nap or get to sleep. For years, it's actually been two apps, one called Energizer (for power naps) and one for Sleep (for, well I think you can guess). The apps use a combination of a soothing voice with binaural tones to help you get to sleep. Binaural Tones (or beats) are a type of audio recording where different frequencies of sound are played in each ear, the resulting difference creating a beating tone phenomenon, which, it is believed, influences brainwave activity. There's some controversy and disagreement over how much of an effect they really have but I've found that the power naps really work for me. I've actually been using Pzizz for years, long before it was an iOS App. Granted, back in those days, I either had to have my laptop within earphone-cable-length of my bed or I had to generate my "naps" and push them to my iPod. Nowadays, I can lie down with my iPhone close by, hit start, and get in a nice power nap. I've never really used it for getting to sleep at night mainly because falling asleep with earbuds leads to my rolling over, and getting an earbud pushed into my ear and waking up in discomfort or even pain. But naps are generally on my back and 20 or so minutes in length and not an issue. Pzizz Energizer and Pzizz Sleep have been replaced by Pzizz. It is also now a universal app running natively on the iPad for the first time. This new app is also free, unlike the paid earlier versions and combines both Sleep and Energizer (now "Power Nap") as modules within the app. Using Pzizz is quite simple. You choose which module you wish to use, Power Nap or Sleep, and then choose the settings you want for each. The default settings are a great place to start, especially if you are new to the whole concept. As you get used to using the app, you can experiment with the other settings. The settings include: Length: How long you want Pzizz to play. For Sleep,it will quietly end and for Power Nap it will bring you back to wakefulness through the voice, the music, the binaural beats, and if those aren't enough, it will play an alarm after the end just in case. Voice: Both modules share a master switch to turn the voice on or off and Aurora 3D, which provides a more 3D sound to the entire experience than just regular stereo. Power Nap has an additional setting for Suggestions, which adds helpful hints throughout the nap rather than just playing the beginning and wake up sections at the start and finish. In general, I suggest starting with the voice turned on. Later, when you are an old pro at using Pzizz, you may find you do not need the voice. I personally still use it even after all these years. Volumes: You can change the relative volumes of the voice and the music to suit your personal tastes. Alarm: For Power Nap, you can opt to put an alarm on in case you are worried you will not wake up from your nap. For Sleep, the app suggests you use the built in alarm in the Clock app on your device. The rest is straightforward: put your device in airplane mode so you won't be disturbed, hit play, relax and enjoy your nap or your night's sleep. I am a big advocate for the power naps. When I hit the afternoon coma, a quick 20-minute nap does wonders and gives me the mental energy and focus to get me through the rest of my day. Pzizz is a free universal app for iPhone and iPad. It requires iOS 7.1 or higher.
The Daily Grind: How should hunger work in MMORPGs?
This week's Crowfall character creation screenshot was pretty and all, but it was the unassuming "hunger resistance" stat down in the statistics panel that caught my eye. A huge fan of cooking and food mechanics in games, I was simultaneously excited and concerned over the inclusion. I have seen hunger (and other needs/survival mechanics) done so well in MMOs (Star Wars Galaxies, EverQuest II) and in mods for other games that they're genuinely fun to play; they add much-needed flavor and immersion as well as flesh out the economy and give meaning to crafting. But I've also seen MMOs, RPGs, and player-made mods that make eating, resting, and traveling so arduous and chore-like and downright annoying that they actually distract from the core game, even when those activities weren't originally the point as they would be in an overt "survival" sandbox or roguelike (I'm not talking about those!). How do you think Crowfall will handle it? How should hunger and similar mechanics work in MMORPGs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Sleep Number's new smart bed is for kids, can adjust as they grow
Sleep Number brought the world the smart bed at CES 2014. And now, for kids! The SleepIQ Kids bed, however, isn't simply a smaller iteration in primary colors. While it offers the same sleep monitor nous of the SleepIQ bed for grown-ups, there's also some simple features for parents to help gauge their kids' sleep, can be adjusted for firmness, as well as things like a monster detector. (Aww.)
Polar's new fitness watch is a step up from a regular activity tracker
Can it really be a year since Polar rocked up at CES promising to change the world with its all-powerful V800? Yes, yes it can. This time around, however, the company is aiming its sights not at hardcore runners, but at people looking for a cheaper, yet more sophisticated activity tracker. Similar to the company's other budget fitness watches like the FT60, Polar's A300 ditches the GPS in favor of Loop-style 24/7 activity and sleep tracking.
Nintendo is making a fatigue and sleep-tracking health device
At a briefing earlier today, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata explained that the company was now developing a device to monitor sleep and levels of fatigue. However, it didn't sound like it would be a wearable device -- even though it's the done thing. According to a Reuters report, the device would track you from your bedside and is currently being co-developed with Resmed. The US-based company typically makes products for people with sleep disorders. It will form part of its new healthcare division inside the gamesmaker, marking a return to wellness hardware: something it has already touched on, way back, with the Wii Fit board. For an idea of what it all could do, we've added a video from Resmed's sleeping tech. Exactly how this will dovetail with our Tomodachi Life village remains to be seen.
