Sleep
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Hollandia's Platinum-Luxe Elite bed includes home theater
We've seen some pretty fantasmical beds in our day, but none of them make you want to stay in it forever quite like this one. Hollandia's Platinum-Luxe Elite, which probably took a few design cues from Mork & Mindy's abode, is far from being your average sleep system, as this thing sports a mattress made from naturally ventilated, hypo-allergenic Vita Talalay latex covered in aloe vera fibers and telescopic head supports that can prop your noggin up for those late-night reading sessions. But that's not even the best part -- you can also look forward to checking out its 32-inch Sony HDTV, BRAVIA 5.1-channel surround sound system, five-disc DVD / CD changer and the obligatory iPod dock whenever counting sheep fails you. Only problem? The $35,000 price tag.[Via CNET]
Getting enthralled, or getting to bed?
WoW tends to be a night time activity for most people, many of whom find that it's surprisingly easy to move from one objective to another and lose track of time until the wee hours of the morning. Some people I know sometimes stay up most of the night playing WoW, only to get an hour or two of sleep before whatever they have to do the next day. They're young and they say they make up that sleep at other times, but still, no one would argue that this sort of situation is ideal. A recent study reported by CNN says they're not alone. People who play MMORPGs tend to sleep less and spend more time playing than players of other computer games. It may seem obvious, since MMOs are by nature somewhat of a time-sink, but there is undeniably something more to it; any activity can potentially be a time-sink, after all -- so what is it about MMOs that makes people actually sink time? The answer is up for debate, of course, but one important factor is that WoW's community of players gives the accomplishments within the game a context of reality. The game's goals, dangling in front of us like carrots, would be nearly meaningless if we could only appreciate them in a single-player context, but with a whole realm of other players working alongside us to get them too, they can feel very important. If the choice is between a few hours having dreams you won't remember, or getting a little closer to riding an impressive dragon mount, then certainly sleep can seem boring and useless by comparison.
Gadgets blamed for teens' lack of sleep
We've seen gadgets blamed for increased violence, the fall of contemporary art, and even broken hearts, but the latest study to pin more blame on the gizmos we simply can't do without purports that teens are missing out on crucial sleep thanks to their gadget addictions. According to a recent report by The Sleep Council, "gadgets in bedrooms such as computers and TVs are fueling poor quality 'junk sleep,' and considering that nearly a quarter of respondents "admitted that they fell asleep watching TV, listening to music, or with other equipment still running more than once a week," it's not too hard to understand how the conclusion was drawn. Nevertheless, it was suggested that these electronics were hindering kids' ability to get the recommended eight hours of sleep each night, but hey, when (most) free nights begin at 9:00PM, how can ya blame 'em?[Thanks, Joel]
Kuchofuku's air conditioned bed, clothing line
Sure, you could blow a cool million on a bed you'd never sleep on, but why not grab one that actually provides some relief (and won't run you $5k a month... forever) after a hard day in the blazing sun? Enter Kuchofuku, who certainly has the right idea with its air conditioned sleeper and clothing line. The makeshift bed, which only weighs 5.3-pounds, utilizes dual fans to pull air in and circulate it through the cushion beneath you. Of course, it'd be a modern tragedy to have to rise and leave such a pleasant scenario, but you can solve that dilemma as well care of the air conditioned shirt. The button-up garb touts an integrated fan that is purportedly powered via USB, which means that your armpits can now remain fresh regardless of how infrequent the AC kicks on at the office. A cooler night's sleep is but $399 away, while the new threads (seen after the jump) will run you a staggering $159 apiece.[Via CScout, thanks Mike]
Brookstone kicks out anti-snoring Sona pillow
While companies have been prying your hard earned dollars away from you for years promising snore-free nights, Brookstone is just now readying its own rendition for spouses on the brink of insanity. The anti-snoring Sona pillow "promotes a comfortable side-sleeping position" based on the belief that "people who sleep on their sides are less likely to snore." Of course, we're in no position to judge the truthfulness of such a claim, but its patented shape has reportedly helped a myriad of users snore less often, inhale more oxygen, and become less loathed by their easily annoyed SOs. Per usual with Brookstone goods, don't expect this miracle device to come cheap, as you'll be forced to pony up $99 for a pillow that only feels comfortable when laying sideways.
Do you ever dream of WoW?
Imagine the scene: the boss has been defeated, and after five grueling hours you're finally able to step out of the instance victorious. You log out to catch some shut eye, and your mind fills with images of the mobs you've just defeated. You're now dreaming of WoW. A forum post about this subject really got me thinking. In fact, evidently even Eyonix dreams of WoW, which I guess isn't all that surprising really. I often dream that I am in game when I am happily zonked out. For me, I think it is a case of sensory input; I dream a lot of times about what I see and hear. A while back I prepared the night before a business meeting by printing out my reports and leaving them by the door so that I wouldn't forget them. I didn't, but in my dreams that night I did. The same is true of World of Warcraft. I spent so much time immersed in the game that it sometimes slips into my dreams as well. Do you dream of WoW? What sorts of in game elements slip into your slumber?
Vista's Aero interface blamed for truncated battery life
Considering just how many copies of Windows Vista that Microsoft has moved, it's not too surprising that a few (potentially rightful) whiners are calling the new operating system out for glaring issues. Not too long after users were complaining over sluggish file movements and bogus ads, it seems that the Aero Glass interface is the latest target of concern. Reportedly, the battery life of laptops is being diminished by having the eye candy cranked up, all while Microsoft claims that the OS touts "improved power management capabilities." Of course, Core Duo users cried this same river when trading more horsepower for minutes, but engineers from HP and Lenovo have actually concocted their own power settings after finding the canned options unsuitable. Still, it seems to make perfect sense that flipping on a glitzy interface that obviously requires more juice to run correctly would negatively impact the battery life, but until we start strapping potent fuel cells into our portable machines, this unfortunate trend is likely to continue.
Magnetic signals could cure chronic insomnia
Make no mistake, there's a plethora of devices out there aimed squarely at rudely disrupting your nap, but a technique that utilizes a gaudy head wrap and magnetic pulses could make the process of conking out a whole lot easier. Apparently, scientists can use relatively standard medical equipment in order to "stimulate the brain with harmless magnetic pulses," which essentially penetrate the nerves that control a type of deep sleep called "slow-wave activity." By forcing the brain to conjure these waves, it helps trigger deep sleep in even the "most chronic insomniac," and researchers are hoping that these methods could be used to create a machine that lets weary individuals get one fabulous power nap. Until then, however, may we suggest wading through every last Intel roadmap presentation you can find without ever losing focus, as this little trick seems to work quite well in corporate settings.[Via Spluch]
Sleep Display, put your monitor to sleep instantly
Sleep Display does one simple thing: run it and it puts your display immediately to sleep, no fuss, no muss. Of course you could turn manually down the backlight, go to the Energy Saver Preference Pane, or even put the entire computer to sleep, but Sleep Display shortcuts all of this: run the application and the display goes dark. Hit a key or move the mouse and the display wakes up. It's perfect for use with Quicksilver. This is a great boon to portable users especially, since the display tends to be the biggest drain on the battery (and running it doesn't affect your normal Energy Saver settings). On my iMac I've had some problems with automatic display sleeping (i.e. it often simply doesn't work), but this little application does the trick just fine. Another great thing about Sleep Display is that when you run it, it sleeps the display and then quits, so it's not running all the time. I think the icon (right) could use a little work, but since I hardly ever see it, I don't think that's a big deal.There's also a Dashboard widget version if you swing that way. Sleep display is a free download for either the application or the widget version.[Via Infinite Loop]
WiebeTech's Mouse Jiggler USB stick prevents sleep
We've certainly seen crafty methods of keeping humans from dozing off when alertness matters most, but WiebeTech's latest actually does a number on your exhausted computer by refusing to let those power savings settings kick in. The admittedly clever Mouse Jiggler rocks a diminutive USB design, and once plugged into your Mac or PC, it takes over your motionless cursor and shakes it all across the screen, effectively denying the machine its heartfelt wish to fall asleep when idle. Of course, this may not do the average user a whole lot of good, but for those locked-down corporate workstations that frustrate IT heads on end by dozing off just before a download / installation is complete, here's your hero. Notably, the Mouse Jiggler comes in "Fast" and "Slow" flavors to suit your cursor-dementing needs, and each can be snapped up right now for $29.95.[Via MetaFilter]
Widget Watch: Minutes
The best widgets, in my view, do one simple thing and do it well. That description would fit Minutes, a great little countdown timer widget. With Minutes you just grab the little blue triangle and spin it around to choose your interval (in whole minutes). When it reaches zero it gives you a Growl notification reading "The time has come" and can also do one of the following: Put the computer to sleep Beep Stop iTunes Start iTunes playing a playlist open a file repeat the countdown Simple, but effective; I like it, especially since you can open multiple copies. Now if only they'd allow you choose intervals other than whole minutes and edit the Growl notification text, it would be perfect. If the Dashboard is not your thing, we also had a post on setting short interval timers using Quicksilver a while back that of course could do all of this and more. Minutes is a free download from Nitram+Nunca.[Via MacApper]
Drowse Prevention Alarm startles drivers, prevents accidents
If you're a driver prone to nodding off and awakening to oncoming traffic, Revex's Drowse Prevention Alarm would be well worth the (non-wallet-crushing) ¥1,200 (about $10.30) investment. Dare to tilt your head 10 degrees and an alarm sounds off, reducing the chances of accidents and collisions. The battery-operated, in-ear device has an off, low, and high setting -- potentially dangerous if you fail to choose wisely. Obviously if it's turned off, your chance of barreling off a bridge greatly increases. Try out the low setting, and if you still fall asleep and live through it, you'll know to use the high setting on your next excursion. And if that doesn't work, we suggest you take the bus.[Via Plastic Bamboo]
Zyken's NightCove provides a pricey better night's rest
While we've seen our fair share of methods to make your night's rest a bit more comfortable (or uneasy), Zyken's latest supposedly provides the perfect solution to combat "light pollution" and help you sleep exactly as nature intended. While you may be functioning on highly caffeinated beans or an overpriced can of energy-injecting liquid right now, the LED-infused NightCove emits various colors throughout the night to coincide with the time, theoretically "stimulating melatonin production" and helping folks sleep better. Of course, there's "proven research" on the firm's website suggesting that these claims are indeed factual, and we must admit the design would lend a hand in sprucing up a mundane bedroom, but for a reported €1,785 ($2,324), it's only a hair cheaper than the entirely more impressive million dollar bed.[Via ShinyShiny]
Burton's Sleeper Hoodie: for the dozing boarder
If you're the type who feels that sleeping is just another way to waste precious seconds of life, the MyDo Bururu glasses can help extend your waking hours and keep you argus-eyed, but if you've been looking for an easy, comfortable way to find sleep while flying around or cramped up in the back seat of a car, Burton feels your pain. Even if you've already dropped entirely too much loot on a plethora of other Burton gear this winter, the company's Sleeper Hoodie could easily extract a few more bills for all its niceties. Aside from sporting a soft, outer layer to keep your toasty, this special hoodie features a built-in iPod / ticket / passport pocket, complimentary earplug compartment, arm pit zips to air yourself out, cuff thumb holes, a pull down "light shield" to block out the rays, and to top it all off, a built-in neck pillow to keep comfy while dreaming away. So if you've nothing better to do on those hour-long ski lift rides to the tip top of the mountain, you might as well cash in on this and snooze a bit (or tune into your iPod) to pass the time.[Via JoshSpear]
MyDo Bururu glasses vibrate your dome to prevent sleep
While there's no shortage of devices that force your eyelids to crack open in the morning, things can get a bit hairy for those late-night cram sessions when you must stay vigilant. As glasses become more like theaters, it's not entirely surprising to see Japan's Vision Optic Company adding superfluous functionality to your everyday spectacles. The vibrating eyewear, dubbed MyDo Bururu, automatically senses when the wearer's head tilts down to a certain angle, and depending on the level of sensitivity you have it set on, will begin to shake, rattle, and roll right up side your noggin until your face returns to an upright position (or you hurl the glasses across the room). Of course, there's no real substitute for a great night's rest, but sometimes duty calls at all times of the day (or night), so if you're a professional student who crams for exams entirely too much, you can hit a pair of these up for around ¥45,000 ($371) -- if you can stay awake long enough to order 'em, that is.[Via PlasticBamboo]
Widget Watch: Deep Sleep
Safe Sleep is basically a 'deeper sleep' feature that debuted on the 15-inch and 17-inch PowerBooks last year, and as far as I know, it's included (and enabled by default) on all of Apple's MacBook/Pro portables (and yes, I hear it's basically like the Windows 'Hibernate' state). This deep sleep differs from the typical Sleep state that most of us are used to: it writes everything currently in memory (your open apps, the files you're working on, etc.) to the hard drive, and actually powers down the machine, saving the battery power that slowly siphons during the normal Sleep mode. Waking from this mode naturally takes a little longer, and a progress bar unique to this feature is displayed while the machine is waking from Safe Sleep. If you want to see it in action, Rob Griffiths (of Macworld and Mac OS X Hints fame) posted a good video demonstration of Safe Sleep on his black MacBook (so jealous!) to YouTube. By default, the new MacBook/Pro behavior is to use a little of both worlds: they write everything to the drive while they're going to sleep, but still use 'regular Sleep' unless power is lost from both AC and the battery. If power is lost, the machine switches over to Safe Sleep automatically - yet another reason to send those Apple engineers a batch of cookies. But what if you want to bypass the regular Sleep status and use Safe Sleep by default all the time?Enter the Deep Sleep Dashboard widget - one-click access to putting your Mac down for an extended nap. Documentation is included with the widget explaining what's going on, and it also has a list of the machines known to support this feature. To top things off, if you just aren't a fan of widgets, the author also packaged Deep Sleep as a simple command line utility, linked in small print at the bottom of Deep Sleep's page.[via MacUser]
Terminal Tip: Keep your Mac portable from waking when the lid is opened
Although I'm a Mac Geek by trade, I tend to avoid the terminal unless I'm out of other options. I'm a GUI kind of girl. It's the Mac OS that I love, not its Unix underpinnings. I appreciate the power of the command line - I just don't want to spend all day there. Still, once in a while I come across a tip like the one, which Glenn Fleishman posted in the most recent TidBITS, and I find myself unable to resist the urge to fire up the Terminal. This tip solves a problem that I've experienced myself and many of my clients have complained about - laptops waking from sleep while in their cases because the latch won't keep the lid closed. This can cause overheating, which can lead to a variety of other problems, like hard drive failures, etc. My solution is, of course, to fix the latch! But there are times when that isn't convenient and even if it's convenient it doesn't happen often enough for some people to even bother stressing about it. By harnessing the power of pmset, the command line app that controls power management settings, you can fix it so that your sleeping beauty stays asleep, even when the latch isn't doing its job.The command is an easy one - a single line. Ready for it? sudo pmset lidwake 0 By setting the lidwake value to 0 you prevent the machine from waking until you tap a key on your keyboard, and since the value gets written just to a plist file, it takes hold right away. Of course you'll need administrator privileges since you'll be asked for an admin password before the command is executed.For more pmset options, have a look at the "man" pages at Apple's Darwin Reference library, or open your Terminal and type "man" (without the quotes), hit return and then type "pmset" (without the quotes.)
Asleep at the Halo switch
Anbody who ever stayed up until 4am playing Halo 2 (or blogging) can relate to the above vid. Pretty funny, if about nine minutes to long. More narcoleptic Spartans here.
TUAW Tip: shortcuts for Sleep, Restart and Shut Down
We here at TUAW are suckers for productive shortcuts, and since yesterday's System Preferences tip was such a hit, I thought I'd post a few shortcuts to speed up the Sleep, Restart and Shut Down commands. There's actually quite a few ways to accomplish these tasks, so I'll try to mention all the methods I've heard of. The first: hold the option key while selecting Restart or Shut Down from the Apple Menu to bypass the 'Are You Sure?' dialog, and cut right to the chase. You even get visual feedback in the Apple Menu; click the menu, then press the option key to see the trailing dots disappear from those two commands (as far as I know, this is a typical UI feedback element used throughout the OS; any commands - at least in Cocoa apps - that have keyboard modifiers will change their appearance in the menu if you press the modifier before choosing the option).The second method is my personal favorite: 100% keyboard shortcuts. Here's a list: Sleep = opt + cmd + eject Restart = ctrl + cmd + eject Shut Down = ctrl + opt + cmd + eject The third method, involving the power key, can still be counted as a keyboard shortcut, but since I almost never touch the power key (I Sleep my Macs about 99% of the time via my aforementioned favorite method), I don't really consider it part of my typical keystroke regimen. For you power key lovers out there, you can press your Mac's power key, and at the resulting 'Are you sure?' dialog that contains four buttons (Restart, Sleep, Cancel and Shut Down), you can press the first letters of a couple of these actions. Specifically, 'r' for Restart, 's' for Sleep and Enter for Shut Down. 'C' for Cancel doesn't seem to work, but Esc should get you out of the dialog if you need to keep computing.Here's hoping you don't have a Homer Simpson-like brain, where each new shortcut you learn knocks out an old one. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts on these shortcuts, and enjoy one more trick for working with your Mac just a little bit faster.
Put your Mac to sleep fast
The Apple Pro Tip of the week is geared toward keyboarders that want to put their Macs to sleep posthaste! The tip points out that if you hold Command-Option and the Eject button for about 2 seconds your Mac will be off to slumberland. Pretty sweet for the energy conscious Mac user on the go.Now you may feel free to tell us in the comments that everyone knows this and I am a horrible, horrible man for wasting your time. You know you want to, it is so much fun! However, before you do that would you do me a favor and hold Command-Option and the Eject button on your Mac for a few seconds? Isn't that better?
