Do you get enough sleep each night? According to studies, 40% of people get less than the seven hours of recommended sleep each night. Better sleep is the key to a better you.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has found that people who get less than 7 hours of sleep each night are more likely to report being:
- obese
- physically inactive
- a smoker (with a greater likelihood)
In addition, they also more likely to report more chronic health problems:
- Heart attack
- Coronary heart disease
- Stroke
- Asthma
- COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)
- Cancer
- Arthritis
- Depression
- Chronic kidney disease
- Diabetes
Getting less sleeps diminishes the amount and quality of deep sleep, also known as slow wave sleep, that our body needs each night. Deep sleep is where the body heals itself at the cellular level. It is essential to repair damage and build replacement tissue.
Without the body’s ability to repair, we can suffer aging at a faster rate and decrease the ability to deflect problems related to heart disease, osteoporosis, and neurological issues.
In addition, studies show that slow wave sleep is critical in resetting the brain, helping it to be more alert and focused. People who get more slow wave sleep have better memory and energy throughout the day. Better slow wave sleep can equate to better sleep.
A Solution for Better Sleep
Slow wave sleep is essential for your well-being , though your lifestyle might make getting 7 hours of sleep difficult.
To help people get better sleep, Philips, a leading healthcare technology company focused on improving people’s health, created SmartSleep. It is the first sleep technology available that is clinically proven to enhance sleep.
SmartSleep uses a wearable headband that uses customized tones to provide a boost to the brain’s natural slow wave activity during deep sleep.
These tones help improve sleep quality by increasing the quality (not the quantity) of deep sleep. Better deep sleep quality results in increased energy and alertness throughout the day.
The Philips SleepMapper app tracks device activity and sleep patterns over time as well as the slow wave boosts a person experiences each night. Syncing the headband to the app gives the wearer an overall sleep score based on statistics such as the time it took to fall asleep, time spent deep sleep, how many times awakened during the night, and overall time in sleep.
The SmartSleep headband is lightweight and adjustable, made from comfortable soft fabric. It is designed to adjust to the wearer’s behavior: monitoring the level of sleep moment to moment, responding with tones to enhance deep sleep, and adjusting the timing and volume of the tones to the wearer’s sleep patterns.
The wireless connectivity with the app turns off once a wearer falls asleep. All further activity is tracked once the headband is synced to the app in the morning.
SmartSleep is not intended for consumers who have sleep disorders, difficulty falling asleep, are hard of hearing, or are over 50 years of age.
SmartSleep Benefits:
- Feel more refreshed, even with less sleep
- Increased energy
- Drug-free sleep enhancement without side effects
- Reduction in daytime sleepiness
- Boosted alertness
- Improved sleep quality
- Better understanding of your sleep patterns
Philips designed SmartSleep with better sleep in mind. Based on its collection of more than 2.6 billion nights of sleep data, collected over the past 10 years. Rather than just track sleep, SmartSleep aims to detect and improve deep sleep with clinically proven technology.
Philips is dedicated to leveraging the knowledge of the true functionality of sleep and its stages. They continue to move towards a future where the total sleep ecosystem improves sleep and ultimately lives.
A Mom’s Perspective
While at CES last week, I had the opportunity to feel the SmartSleep headband. It is very soft and comfortable. For some, the idea of wearing a headband each night may seem odd. But for those I talked to from Philips, who wear it on a regular basis, they say it’s comfortable…and even cozy…as it warms your ears with a soft covering so tones can be heard.
People with sleep apnea wear a much more constricting CPAP headband and mask. And although SmartSleep is not designed for people with sleep apnea, CPAP wearers have already paved the way for wearing some sort of headband at bedtime.
I am one of the 40 % of people who get under 7 hours of sleep each night and are in great need of better sleep. Using SmartSleep would definitely benefit my daily alertness and activity.
When I have evaluated sleep trackers in the fast, I have noticed that my deep sleep is not as long as it could be. Although SmartSleep will not elongate the number of minutes I’m in deep sleep, it will increase the quality of my deep sleep, resulting in better sleep. I’m looking forward to trying it. SmartSleep will be available in Spring 2018.
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