Working from home has disrupted the precarious balance of our routines in ways we could not have thought of before. Whether we realize it or not, we all have a ritual that sets us up for the day – may it be traveling to work, reading the paper or browsing news on your favorite app, all these little rituals have gone for a toss with us jumping out of bed to the screen every morning. And our nights suffer too – without an out time from the office, days just merge into the night and we truly don’t know where the day has gone, frustrating, isn’t it?! The impact of all these disruptions is felt at night when we try to sleep. We are here to help you create the perfect environment for a great, peaceful, and relaxed sleep. Each product showcased in this collection takes care of your sleeping needs to ensure you start your new day recharged and ready to face whatever comes your way!
An unlikely area of intervention for an automotive company, Ford’s now designing self-adjusting beds! Designed as a part of the Ford Interventions series, which uses automotive technology to remedy everyday problems, this is the Lane-Keeping Bed. As its name suggests, it prevents bed-space-hoggers from occupying more than half of the bed’s space. We move around a lot when we sleep (some more than others). This often results in inequality when it comes to bed-sharing. That’s where Ford’s quirky Lane-Keeping Bed helps bring back the balance. It uses Ford’s Lane-Keeping Aid technology, which monitors road markings to help guide the driver back into the appropriate lane, and a conveyor-mounted mattress that can roll/shift to always make sure your partner (or you) occupies the correct amount of bed-space.
The secret to a good night’s sleep also depends on how you finish that sleep marathon, aka the morning ritual. The Bariseur by designer Joshua Renouf is a pretty neat alarm clock that doesn’t jolt you awake with the radio or the annoying/disorienting buzzing noise. It brews you your favorite brew and wakes you up with a soothing alarm noise and a fresh beautiful wafting aroma! The Bariseur comes in a strangely comforting retro chemistry-set avatar that rests on your bedside table. Its carefully calibrated design ensures that your brew every morning is set to perfection because of the difference between a good and great day us usually in the taste of your first cup!
The napEazy was designed by Arvind Kumaran, Pradipta Sahoo, Soham Patel and Shanavas MS to be the one go-to pillow you could use when you’re away from your own bed. Whether at work for those quick power naps, or during your long commute, or even while traveling, the napEazy’s all-in-one nature makes it, well, as the name suggests… easy to nap. The concept was incubated at Airbus Bizlab, before evolving into its own independent company. The napEazy’s two-part design uses a dual-layer memory foam that’s just the right amount of soft while also being water-repellent and hypo-allergenic. A travel-case-inspired telescopic rod allows the napEazy to split into two, turning it into a prop-up pillow you can use to help you sleep forward or sideways while sitting, keeping your spine straight to avoid aches or posture-related problems.
Equipped with a built-in 4K projector that can be synced with a series of devices to binge-watch movies/TV shows on a 70-inch retractable screen, the HiBed by Fabio Vinella (for Hi-interiors) is the epitome of in-bed relaxation. A built-in surround sound system with invisible speakers makes the bed feel more like a movie theatre. The bed is connected to an app and monitors our sleep pattern and movements, adjusting the temperature according to our comfort. It also records body weight, air quality, and noise level to provide a foolproof check on our health. Some good news for the late risers, the HiBed comes with an inbuilt smart alarm system that wakes us up with loud recitations of the weather and daily news.
During the day, the Circular Ring by Amaury Kausman captures your activity, blood oxygen levels, energy levels, calorie burn count, among other metrics, while at night, the ring ambiently tracks your circadian rhythm and records your sleep quality, heart-rate variability, sleep disturbances, REM cycles, and sleep and wake times. Using pretty state-of-the-art data processing and machine-learning technology, the ring, its app, and the app’s assistant Kira help you collectively better understand your health and give you bespoke advice on how to improve it. Additionally, the app even has its own smart-alarm function that calculates the best time to wake you based on your sleep cycles, so you’re well-rested and energetic throughout the rest of your day. The ring uses subtle vibration pulses to coax you out of your sleep.
Nikola Tesla, Leonardo da Vinci, Salvador Dali, Thomas Edison, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Buckminster Fuller. Do you know what all these geniuses had in common? They all mastered the art of productivity by hacking their sleep cycles to the fullest extent. Every single person has a different sleep requirement. Sleep assistants can be an app, or a wearable, but nothing is quite as effective as a smart headband. Designed for the explicit purpose of giving you precise control over your sleep, the Neuroon Open by Kamil Adamczyk is an open-source headband that can be used for effective sleeping, smart waking, deep meditation, polyphasic sleep, and lucid dreaming. The wearable comes in two parts, an EEG (electroencephalogram) that measures brain-waves, and an eye-mask that has LEDs within it, to help you wake up, or to trigger a lucid dream.
Imagine a place where everything is designed to help you fall asleep…Caspers’ Dreamery is designed by New York-based architecture firm HWKN, and is situated in the heart of New York’s most hectic neighborhood; SoHo. The Dreamery offers a tranquil escape through a 45-minute nap session in a private suite outfitted with their trademark mattress, pillows, and sheets (that are changed every session).
Nothing is more annoying that missing out on quality sleep because you left the drapes open last night. Designed to universally retrofit onto most curtain rods, Wonder Tech Lab’s SwitchBot comes with two hooks that hold it in place and a wheel that moves the bot left or right. Place the SwitchBot between the first and second loops of your curtain or blind, and the bot can now, on command, run up and down the curtain rod, maneuvering your curtains open or closed. SwitchBot runs on an app, but even supports voice commands via your phone or smart speaker, effectively allowing you to have your own “Let there be light” moment by commanding the curtains to open at will. IFTTT and shortcuts support even lets you sync SwitchBot with your alarm, or with the time of the day, thanks to the bot’s in-built light sensor.
Sidekicks, developed by Bandi during his MA at the Royal College of London, is a series of electronic devices and appliances that literally use your phone as their on/off switch. Designed as a desk lamp for working, a speaker for leisure time, an alarm clock for the end of the day and a projector for watching a movie, Sidekicks literally need you to dock your phone in them to work. Place your phone in the designated area and your gadget powers to life, allowing you to use it. The phone’s screen turns into the product’s interface, allowing you to control it, while limiting your use. By confiscating your phone in order to work, Sidekicks offer a much more ‘cold turkey’ solution to our smartphone addiction problems, punishing us at first, but eventually allowing us to consciously live in the moment
Still unhappy about having to wake up? Now you can channel your inner Thor superhero every morning with the Hammer alarm clock! That’s actually not far off from what the inspiration was for this clever clock. Designer Jorge Ros Gisbert wanted to create a way for people to wake up feeling strong and motivated each day instead of feeling defeated and irritating by annoying smartphone alarms. Your face is already buried in your smartphone enough as it is, but at least now interacting with your phone doesn’t have to be the FIRST thing you do each day. Instead, you must grab the hammer and slam it down on the rubberized base to shut off the alarm.
Falling asleep is asking your mind to let go of the thoughts plaguing it and to rest. Granted not all of us fall asleep with ease, but logic dictates conditioning your mind to sleep is better than to fall asleep with your phone throwing an onslaught of images at you while you drool on your pillow. So tonight, take some time to relax and soothe yourself in falling asleep for a better tomorrow!
