There’s no shortage of devices that can track your sleep, analyze it, and prescribe future actions that can help improve your circadian rhythms. Whether they work in actually improving sleep is up in the air, however, since their suggestions are usually no different than what you can get from consulting a knowledgeable therapist.
Truth be told, what we really want is a device that can help induce sleep when we want it. Dreem just might be what brings that into our bedroom.
A sleep wearable, it slips around a person’s head during bedtime where it will track and monitor various sleeping mechanics. Instead of simply being a passive tool like traditional sleep trackers, it actively works to help induce sleep and improve it, essentially serving as your sleep whisperer of sorts.
Equipped with EEG sensors, Dreem will keep a constant tab on your brain activity, allowing it to recognize at what stage of the circadian cycle you’re in at any single time. Just like other sleep monitors, this gives it the ability to keep a detailed log of your sleep patterns, which it uses to provide actionable insights (via a companion app) that can help further improve the kind of rest you’re getting. According to the outfit, their insights, which is generated by a machine learning algorithm, are accurate, personalized, and completely actionable, ensuring they are things you can actually do something about.
What makes Dreem unique, however, is the integrated bone conduction audio system that allows it to send sounds straight to your inner ear. When you can’t sleep, it will play a program that guides you through various cognitive and breathing techniques that sleep therapists regularly use to help their clients reach slumber. Once you’ve begun sleeping, it will monitor your brain activity and play sounds that synchronize with it. According to the outfit, these sounds have been proven to enhance sleep quality by up to 32 percent, ensuring you can get better sleep every night of the week. It also offers other options for inducing sleep, including soothing sounds that are synced according to your brain activity and spoken words that correspond to various abstract thoughts.
Since it’s basically a pair of headphones that you wear while you sleep, it also doubles as a functional alarm. Unlike other alarm clocks that simply wake you up at the exact time, however, it takes into account your sleep stage and brain activity, only choosing to play its alarm when it determines an optimal moment that’s as close to your desired time as possible, so that you will wake up refreshed and alert.
As for the device itself, Dreem is, basically, a headband that doesn’t look like it will interfere with your comfort in bed, so we’re guessing this will be quite easy to integrate into your regular sleep rituals. It’s covered in soft fabric and lined in foam, too, so it probably feels no different than sleeping with a mask on.
Slated to ship in fall of 2017, Dreem is now available for pre-order. Price is $399.