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Every year, many of us put things like “eat better,” “feel less stressed,” and “get in shape” on our New Year’s resolution list. And sleep plays a big role in achieving all these goals. Missing rest is detrimental to almost every other way you try to improve yourself, from eating junk food to increasing stress hormones. In addition to reminding you to get enough sleep, there are other gadgets that help you sleep deeper and more restful, like Bedtime Mode on your iPhone or Android device. For those of you who need a little more help waking up in 2023, here are some gadgets we’ve tried to help you sleep.
Oura wheel
Oura’s smart ring tracks your activity during the day and your sleep at night (or at bedtime), giving you an overall score every morning from 1 to 100. Using sensors for temperature, movement, blood oxygen and pulse, Oura understands how long you stay in different stages of sleep and uses that data to figure out how to get better rest. Suggest. When we tested it, we called it “the perfect wearable for those who hate wearables” and appreciated the data it provided while sliding seamlessly into our daily lives. Reviewers quickly began ignoring its existence. That means you’re more likely to go to bed than fitness bands.
Since there is no screen, all of Oura’s information comes through the companion app. That lack of screen is also why you can pull off up to 7 days of battery life. This is an important feature as a device that must spend the night on a charger cannot track sleep.
fitbit inspire 3
If you prefer wearables with screens, they tend to be less obtrusive and have longer battery life, so fitness trackers are definitely better than smartwatches when it comes to tracking sleep. Much more affordable than Oura, Fitbit’s Inspire 3 is the best budget choice for a fitness tracker right now, and it’s a great choice for tracking Z’s. Suitable for
It costs around $100 and has sensors similar to Oura, including heart rate, temperature, movement and blood oxygen. The company has put a lot of effort into expanding its sleep metrics, and the app can provide detailed insight into how much time you’re spending in each stage of sleep. is displayed. With a $10/month membership, you get a more detailed breakdown of your score so you can track your sleep trends over time. You can wake up at some point, so it’s not as uncomfortable to be back online.
Eight Sleep Pod 3
If you don’t want the wearable at all, Eight Sleep’s Sleep Pod 3 tracks metrics and gives you a sleep score. It also warms or cools the sides of your bed and wakes you up to the subtle sounds under your chest. Mattress and cover combinations cost between $3,000 and $4,400, depending on the size and thickness of the mattress, making them far more affordable than traditional wearables. Located in the cover, it hides a tube that runs hot or cold water from an external base to regulate temperature, and a sensor in the cover monitors sleep.
Buying just the cover saves you $900-$1,900 off the sticker price, but it’s still not cheap. A $19/month subscription is also required to access all sleep tracking features. But in our review, with a score of 81, reviewer (and new dad) Sam Rutherford said the Pod 3 provided some of the best sleep ever.
hatch restoration
Hatch Restore, a sunrise alarm clock and audio machine, was featured in our guide to smart lights to help you before, during, and after sleep. To get you to dreamland, Restore offers guided exercises and sleep stories, and you can choose white or pink noise sounds to keep you asleep once you’re there. To wake up, a gentle sunrise alarm slowly brightens to mimic the sunrise and stimulate your brain in the morning. The caveat here is that access to our library of sleep meditations and guides requires a subscription, currently $5/month or $50/year.
head space
Personally, the best thing I’ve done for sleep is banishing my cell phone from my bedroom. So it might seem ironic to add smartphone apps to this list. However, Headspace has the opposite effect on sleep than social media does: Like Hatch Restore, the app has an extensive library of meditations and exercises to help you relax and drift off to sleep.
I prefer shorter winddown segments that last a few minutes and help me do a full body scan to relax. The longer “Sleepcast” lasts about 45 minutes and tells the story in a soothing voice. There are also some Star Wars-themed stories, but I woke up and wanted to see more. AndorSleep music and soundscapes combine ambient sounds with tones and melodies and last up to 500 minutes. And perhaps most importantly, there’s a “Nighttime SOS” page with guided exercises to help you get back to sleep if you’ve been awakened by things like nightmares or work stress.
Subscriptions are $70/year or $13/month. In addition to sleep content, you’ll also find meditations during the day and sessions to help you breathe, focus, and manage stress. This will also help you sleep. If you decide to bring Headspace into the bedroom, make sure your phone’s sleep focus or bedtime mode is on before you do. Otherwise, nightly spam emails and Messenger alerts will undo all the good work the sleep app has just rendered.
Philips Hue smart light
Philips Hue White + Color is the best smart light bulb you can buy, with specific features to help you sleep, like being programmed to turn warmer when it’s time to go to bed. Not only does it give you subtle hints of when it’s time to relax, the warmer tones have lower levels of blue light that mimic sunlight, helping your brain prepare for sleep. You can also use your voice to control them, so instead of getting out of bed and turning off the lights, you can ask Alexa or Google Assistant.
Felix gray blue light blocking glasses
Speaking of blue light, it’s not good for sleep. But that doesn’t mean the habit of staring at the screen will go away. That’s why glasses exist that block blue light. I’ll admit I thought it was a gimmick at first, but since then I’ve come to rely on a pair I bought from Felix Gray. I initially only wore it in the evenings when I was working after 5pm or still on the computer. Now I basically wear it all day long. This is because I feel that my eyes are getting less tired. They come in enough styles to make your own, with or without your prescription.
Bearaby weighted blanket
You’ve probably met someone who swears by a weighted blanket.Our colleague Nicole Lee is one of them. Suffering from insomnia, she found using the Bearaby Weighted Blanket “nodded faster and slept longer” and recommended it as one of our best self-care gifts for her. Unlike other weighted blankets filled with glass or plastic beads, the Bearaby Comforter is hand-woven from heavyweight cotton, Tencel, or eco-velvet and looks more like a giant scarf than a drab sleep aid. increase.
manta sleep mask
Blue light before bed is not good, but any kind of light hitting your eyelids will keep you from reaching a deeper level of sleep. . There are plenty of sleep masks out there, but Igor Bonifacic, Weekend Editor at Engadget, found this one better than the rest and recommends it for travelers in our guide. It has removable and repositionable eyecups for a tailored fit and lives up to its claims of blocking 100% of ambient light. You can also purchase extra eye cups that have a microwave warming effect, or eye cups wrapped in skin-friendly silk.
