The Skynest pods feature two sets of three bunk beds stacked in an outward-facing V formation, with curtains you can close for privacy. Measuring 80 inches by 23 inches, they’re long enough for most people to lie completely flat. They come with bedding, including pillows, sheets, and blankets, and each pod includes its own USBV outlet, reading light, and storage pocket. They’ll be installed at the very front of the rear economy cabin in Air New Zealand’s new Boeing 787-9s, which will service the airline’s long-haul routes to cities like New York and Chicago.

Because they can’t be occupied during takeoff and landing, the bunks can’t be booked for the entire flight. Instead, they’re available in four-hour windows, with the bedding changed in between each passenger. Passengers traveling on economy, premium economy, or economy stretch (seats with extra legroom) tickets can add their nap break onto their total much like they would extra baggage. The airline hasn’t yet revealed how much this feature will cost.

“New Zealand’s location puts us in a unique position to lead on the ultra-longhaul travel experience,” says Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran. “We have zeroed in on sleep, comfort, and wellness because we know how important it is for our customers to arrive well-rested. Whether they are heading straight into a meeting, or to their first holiday hotspot — they want to hit the ground running. It’s a proud moment to finally unveil five years of hard mahi, in what truly is a cabin of possibility. One that will provide customers with options to get some shut eye wherever they’re sitting.”

The Skynest isn’t Air New Zealand’s only economy-class innovation. The Economy Skycouch is a row of seats you can change into a couch after takeoff, either by booking three seats in a row just for yourself, sharing with a partner, or cuddling your kids. The seats are the same as the rest in Economy, except you have a special footrest on each seat that you can lift halfway up to lounge or all the way up to create one big couch. It’s private,t oo, so you won’t end up sharing your Skycouch with a stranger.

Will big American airline companies like Delta, American Airlines, or United follow suit? It seems unlikely, but so did the prospect of this Skynest pod design ever actually becoming real. It was first unveiled in 2020 just before the COVID-19 pandemic started and seemed destined to remain a concept, especially as travel slowed to a crawl. Perhaps other airlines will find a way to make the numbers work in order to include similar features.

The post Air New Zealand Will Offer “Skynest” Sleep Pods to Economy Class Passengers first appeared on Dornob.

If sensitivity to noise makes it hard for you to sleep, you’ve probably tried all kinds of things: ear plugs, noise-canceling ear buds, and even huge heavy-duty headphones that make it impossible to sleep on your side. None of these options are particularly comfortable to wear all night long, and it’s unclear how healthy it really is to have electronic devices playing near your brain 24/7.

Enter “SleepMuffs,” a sound-blocking neck pillow that solves most of these problems with absolutely zero electronic parts. Made in Australia, these cushiony ear muffs are more complex than they look on the surface. They don’t just cover your ears and cradle your neck. They also feature multiple sound-blocking layers to cut off as much distracting noise as possible.

On the inside, next to your skin, the muffs feature a silk-like thermo-regulating bamboo fabric cover that helps you stay cool and comfortable all night long. On the outside, a smooth, soft but more durable stain-resistant fabric made of recycled single-use bottles stands up to friction against your pillow and other surfaces. In between are a high-quality sound wave absorbing homogenous foam, an acoustic shell made of recycled ABS to ensure a proper seal with your ear, another layer of sound reducing lightweight acoustic foam, and a final ear seal.

A high-quality pair of active noise-canceling headphones, like those sold by Bose and Sony, blocks out about 35 decibels using microphones inside and outside the ear cups to monitor external sounds and instantly produce an opposite signal to cancel them out. It works remarkably well, but it doesn’t come cheap, and it’s much better suited for daytime wear than sleep.

The SleepMuffs product is rated almost as high at 33 decibels, and all without any electronic parts, charging cables, or bulky plastic. Earplugs, in comparison, typically block about 23 decibels. If you like to wear earbuds to listen to music, ambient noise, or meditation tracks while falling asleep, you can still do that with the SleepMuffs on, and they’re compatible with eye masks, too.

Blocking out sound isn’t all the SleepMuffs can do. The ergonomic design relieves neck tension by cradling your neck to keep your head from falling from side to side when you sleep on your back, and the muffs offer extra cushion if you’re a side sleeper, filling the gap between the pillow and your head to let your neck sit at a comfortable height.

The ear muffs made with travel in mind, so they pack up small in an included water-resistant travel pouch, making them ultra-convenient to take on planes, trains, buses, and road trips. The covers come in two colors: light gray or dark gray, with black inside. They’re removable and machine-washable.

The SleepMuffs are currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, and backers can get a set as a reward for a pledge of AU $119 or more (about $88 USD). Estimated delivery is in June 2021, when hopefully a lot of us will be coronavirus-vaccinated and back on the road. When the Kickstarter campaign is over, they’ll be available to the public at a retail price of AU $149 (about $110 USD).

The post SleepMuffs: Sound-Blocking Neck Pillow Lets You Nap in Noisy Environments first appeared on Dornob.

Now, innovations from researchers at MIT’s Dream Lab are making it possible to “hack” your own dreams using an open source wearable device that can track and interact with them, including a glove called “Dormio.”

Adam Horowitz, a PhD student at MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group and fellow Dream Lab researcher, says he hopes the project will help answer questions about whether interfering with dreams could help people change or better themselves through augmentation of memory and creativity.

The Dormio glove features sensors that wrap around the wearer’s wrist and fingers, tracking muscle tone, heart rate, and skin conductance to identify various stages of sleep. When the user slips into a stage called “hypnagogia,” the device plays a prerecorded audio cue. For instance, one experiment with 50 participants played the word “tiger,” and the users reported dreaming about tigers.

“During sleep onset, a window of opportunity arises in the form of hypnagogia, a semi-lucid sleep state where we all begin dreaming before we fall fully unconscious,” the researchers explain. “Hypnagogia is characterized by phenomenological unpredictability, distorted perception of space and time, and spontaneous, fluid idea association. Edison, Tesla, Poe, and Dalí each accessed this state by napping with a steel ball in hand to capture creative ideas generated in hypnagogic microdreams when it dropped to the floor below.”

“With Dormio we modernize this technique, using a hand worn sleep-stage tracking system, social robots’ unique interactive and embodied capabilities, and auditory feedback on sleep stage transitions. Using Dormio, we are able to influence, extract information from, and extend hypnagogic microdreams for the first time: we found all of our subjects indeed dreamed about themes chosen by experimenters prior to subject sleep, and that active use of hypnagogia with the Dormio system can augment human creativity as measured by flexibility, fluency, elaboration, and originality of thought.”

Another Dream Lab project called “BioEssence” by PhD candidate and researcher Judith Amores features a wearable scent diffuser that monitors heart rate and brain waves, releasing a specific scent the user associates with a certain memory or behavior when they’ve reached the N3 stage of sleep, which is the state most associated with memory consolidation. Scent is less likely to wake you up than a spoken word, and it’s directly connected to the memory and emotional parts of the brain.

All of these innovations might either sound exciting or foreboding to you, depending on how you feel about increasingly invasive technology. Dream Lab released a video called “Cocoon” featuring both devices in hopes of soothing fears about the potential ramifications of allowing technology to alter dream states, along with an FAQ addressing potential ethical issues. Their stance is that since users are in a state of semi-conscious hypnagogia, they’re aware of the intrusion.

“Most, but not all, remember what they said throughout the experiment. But critically, we have had people forcibly wake themselves up when they had a weird enough dream that they did not want us experimenters to hear about it. People are monitoring their environment and aware of their descent into sleep, limiting the capacity for inserting any ideas people don’t want inserted, or extracting ideas they don’t want extracted.”

The post Hack Your Dreams With MIT’s New Wearable Tech first appeared on Dornob.

Nano tanks — small aquariums under 15 gallons in size — are quickly becoming a favorite decor piece among renters and homeowners, especially those who live in urban areas. Not only are these tiny aquariums minimalist in style, they also make for a great way to bring nature’s touch into the house.

Why is Minimalism So Popular?

Perhaps it’s Marie Kondo’s beloved philosophy of tidying up, decluttering, and simplifying interior spaces, or maybe it’s the fact that city and suburban rentals aren’t very spacious to begin with. On top of all that, the newfound popularity of reducing one’s carbon footprint and leading a sustainable lifestyle is likewise encouraging everyone to cut back. Rather than splurging on large things, people are opting for more compact, more convenient designs.

The minimalism aesthetic visually conveys a purposeful cleanliness that’s soothing to any denizen, whether they reside in the heart of concrete jungle or the quaint countryside (though of course, it’s probably most impactful to urban dwellers who regularly need to decompress and de-stress). And with big publications like Vice having previously reported that “staring at a fish tank is like getting the healing benefits of nature on demand,” it’s no wonder that people everywhere are choosing to work small tanks into their own decor schemes.

The Health Benefits of Nano Tanks

A nano tank is like a zen sand garden, providing calming effects to pet owners and promoting serenity in the homespace. There’s also a type of mindfulness and meditation that takes place as you care for an aquarium, tending to the aquascape as a form of mental escape from daily stress.

Pet Central recently shared the views of certified sleep science coach Chris Brantner, who states: “It seems that watching fish, and listening to the trickling water, causes the production of serotonin, which stimulates the brain to increase endorphins. The result? Positive feelings. Such stress reduction translates well to sleep.”

Brantner adds that “We’re learning more and more about how important it is to set calming bedtime routines and creating a relaxing sleep environment in our bedrooms. An aquarium is perfect for both. The trickling sound of the water naturally does what we try to emulate with sound machines. And watching the fish swim around is a perfect meditative precursor to sleep.”

A nano tank can thereby “spark joy” and bring balance to one’s home, much like minimalism. Even better, its a miniature oasis that you get to design and curate, allowing all your creative juices to flow freely. So what are you waiting for? Stop staring out the window all day, and bring this magical little pice of nature into your home.

The post Why the Nano Tank Trend is Making a Splash first appeared on Dornob.

Winner of a 2019 Red Dot Design Award, the Somnox aims to be your “little spoon.” Hold it against your body at night, and you’ll feel it “breathe” in a soothing rhythm, causing you to automatically synchronize your own breathing with that of the robot. The bot also features a CO2 sensor in its “head” that slows down the pace of its breathing motion to match yours as you fall asleep.

The Somnox’ designers explain: “By synchronizing your breathing rhythm to that of the Sleep Robot, you will reach a steady and slower breathing rhythm. This deep breathing is one of the best ways to lower stress in your body, because it will send a message to your brain with the command to relax your body. This will result in a good and long night’s sleep.”

The team came up with the idea for the bot after suffering from stress-related sleep deprivation themselves, saying: “Rather than reaching for addictive medication, we found breathing, audio, and affection to be effective and proven methods to naturally induce sleep. Being personally exposed to the effects of sleep deprivation, we made it our mission to bring the world better sleep with the ultimate sleep companion: the Somnox sleep robot. Our mission is to help 100,000 people achieve a good night’s rest with the world’s best natural step solution by 2025.”

Just having something soft to cuddle at night can help you relax, but the Somnox offers some things your pillow (or cat, or partner) probably can’t: built-in audio with guided meditations, lullabies, heartbeats, or whatever sounds of your own that you might want to upload. Even better, these sounds automatically adjust in volume and eventually turn off after a set period of time. The Somnox even boasts a built-in “wake-up breathing program” and alarm that will wake you up with your music of choice and a soft glowing light.

Users say the pillow has a “belly” that rises and falls as the Somnox breathes, and the effect sort of feels like a purring cat. It’s about the size and weight of an infant, and covered in a soft heavy-duty fabric. A companion app lets you input factors like gender, age, and body mass index to determine the ideal breathing tempo and allows you to fine-tune it until it’s right for you. You can also set the duration of the breathing period anywhere from five to 90 minutes each night, and choose from three settings: nap, sleep, or relax.

At nearly $600, the Somnox isn’t exactly cheap, and its features may simply not be enough for people who suffer from insomnia and other serious sleep conditions. But if you could use just a little more comfort and companionship to lull you off to sleep, the sleep robot might feel like a better option than the many more invasive sleep augmentation gadgets on the market, like wearables that track your biorhythms.

The post Cuddle with the Soft Somnox Robot to Track Your Sleep Quality first appeared on Dornob.

Labor Day is just around the corner, and many are busy prepping for back to school and organizing the last backyard barbecue of the season. Lucky for us all, it’s also the perfect time to take advantage the discounts at our favorite retailers.

It’s the changing of the seasons in the retail world, so you’re almost guaranteed to find them pushing out shorts and lawn furniture to make room for new models of appliances and holiday decor. Beyond that, you’ll be able to cash in on all these exciting sales come Labor Day Weekend 2019.

Home Depot

If you’re in the market for new appliances, Behr paint, or a new vacuum, check out the Labor Day deals at Home Depot. They also offer a lowest price guarantee, so if you find the same item cheaper elsewhere, you’ll be happy to hear that they will price match.

REI

Shop all outdoor sporting goods and clothing during one of REI’s biggest sales of the year. Check out the Peak Deals for 50-percent or more off select items. You can also be on the lookout for discounts on REI co-op brand gear, camping, biking, and climbing gear, car racks, and kayaks and paddle boards.

Marmot

Marmot is another outdoor brand offering discounts over the holiday with 25-percent off equipment, sportswear, and rainwear.

Nectar Sleep

If you’re not familiar with the brand, Nectar Sleep offers the longest sleep trial in the industry with 365 days or your money back. For Labor Day 2019, they’re offering $100 off mattresses plus two free memory foam pillows to get you all set up for a good year’s sleep.

More Mattresses

If a new mattress is definitely on your Labor Day list, you can also check out Bear Mattress, who’s offering 20 percent off your entire purchase deal when you use the code “20LD” at checkout. Plus, you’ll score two free cloud pillows with every purchase of a mattress. At Allswell, you can also take advantage of 15-percent savings on mattresses and bedding with the code “LD15.” Finally, the code “LD200” will save you $200 on any mattress at Birch, and Essentia also has select options marked 25-percent off for the holiday.

Staples

If you’ve procrastinated on your back-to-school supply shopping, don’t worry. You haven’t missed out quite yet. Although they haven’t released their ads yet, you can expect discounts for school and office supplies well worth the trek to this store (or their site).

Hayneedle

Check out decor for inside and out here marked up to 50 percent off. Even better, you can take an additional 15 percent off your order by using the promo code LABORDAY at checkout.

Tommy Hilfiger

It’s a brand we remember from the 80s and 90s, but today’s youth have definitely picked up on the trend. Save here this Labor Day with an extra $30 off $100 (or $50 off $150) with the coupon code “LBRDAY3050.”

Kohl’s

Kohl’s is very upfront with their coupon codes, so be sure to check out their website to save 15 to 30 percent. Some codes stack, too, meaning you can use two codes at once for additional discounts. The store hasn’t released their full Labor Day Sale info quite yet, but we’re confident it will offer great deals, especially coupled with promo codes and Kohl’s Cash.

Walmart

We’re also waiting on word from Walmart on their Labor Day deals, but you can be confident they will include specials in the categories of electronics, clothing, and grilling.

Amazon

Although they don’t have a specific landing page for Labor Day deals, the online giant is certainly planning on celebrating the holiday this year. Check out Dyson vacuums, TVs, electronics, clothing, and hit the “Today’s Deals” tabs to see what changes daily.

General Tips

Saving money via Labor Day deals means scouring the ads, but you’ll save even more money with additional discounts that aren’t advertised online.

• RetailMeNot.com is the most extensive coupon database online. Do a quick search for your favorite store here, and you just might find an additional 5 to 25-percent off promo code.
• Check eBay. Although there are still great deals across the site itself, another reliable and inexpensive way to use it is simply to purchase coupon codes. For example, there are always dollar-off codes and 10-percent off coupons for Lowe’s here. So if you find a great deal on an end-of-season grill, lawn mower, or piece of patio furniture, you can purchase that coupon through eBay and scan it in store for quick (and huge) savings.
• Check back frequently. If you’re looking for a specific item from a specific retailer, be sure to check their site often. Prices change almost daily on some items (and even hourly in the case of Amazon, with their advanced pricing algorithms) so look out for pre-Labor Day Sales, Labor Day Sales, and even Post-Labor-Day Sales, too.
• Watch coupon expiration dates and brand limitations. For example, Staples advertised a bundle of money-saving coupons aimed at Labor Day, but they actually expired on August 24th. There will likely be a new batch of coupons to replace them, but try to have a grasp on all expiration dates beforehand so you don’t get a disappointing surprise at the register.

The post These are the Labor Day Sales You Don’t Want to Miss first appeared on Dornob.

Now, a new product called the Pocket Sky — a light you wear over your eyes like eyeglasses — claims that it can help you “activate yourself with light, anytime, anywhere.”

We may have entered an era in which we no longer rise and go to bed along with the sun, but that doesn’t mean that our bodies’ circadian rhythms have caught up. We’re surrounded by artificial lighting at almost all times of the day and night, whether that means working under fluorescent lighting long after sunset or sleeping with the tiny lights of cell phone screens and other gadgets glowing all around us. Not getting enough exposure to natural daylight can also disrupt our internal clocks and interfere with our moods.

Just like pitch darkness can help us fall asleep at night, sometimes we need a little extra kick of light to stay awake during the day. The Pocket Sky works by using soft blue light to suppress the production of melatonin (the sleep hormone) and naturally enhance wakefulness. The creators of the odd-looking device say it can also positively influence one’s performance and sense of well-being.

Winner of a 2019 Red Dot Design Award, the Pocket Sky looks a bit like Google Glass, which may not be the best news in the world, but thankfully you don’t have to wear it in public for long periods to reap its benefits. In fact, it only takes 20 minutes a day of shining this blue light over your eyes to “lift your mood and power you up.” It could be especially useful to people who travel across time zones frequently, allowing them to manually reset their internal clocks to match those of their present locations.

“Performance consultants of the NBA have started using it some time ago: therapy with colored lights to better adjust to a new time zone and to get players up to their full potential as fast as possible,” reads a press release about the Pocket Sky’s Kickstarter campaign. “A small startup from Austria had the idea to make benefits of blue light therapy available to private people. Performance issues, shift work, seasonal affective disorder (“winter blues”) and jet lag are among the daily problems of many that the development team has set out to solve.”

“After many years of development, designing, and intensive testing, Pocket Sky is now available on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter: the smallest, most user-friendly and, according to the jury of the Red Dot Award 2019, most stylish light therapy on the market. The funding goal on Kickstarter was reached within less than five hours on May 9th.”

The Pocket Sky folds down into a compact carrying case that doubles as a charging unit, requires no app to be used, and runs for two weeks on a single charge. When you put it on, it starts its sequence by emulating a sunrise. After twenty minutes, it shuts itself down automatically. The flexible frame is one-size-fits-all.

If you’re interested in grabbing one up for yourself, make sure to check out the aforementioned Kickstarter page, where you can save up to 52 percent off the expected retail price by backing the campaign.

The post Energize Yourself With Pocket Sky’s Innovative Blue Light Therapy first appeared on Dornob.

The post Birds Nest Bed for Solo Lounging first appeared on Dornob.

As fate would have it, it looks like those days will soon be upon us once again. Charles Hall, the creator of the original water bed, is determined to revive his iconic invention for the modern masses.

Back in 1967, when Hall was just a student at San Francisco State University, he stumbled upon flotation furniture as part of an assignment for his engineering class. That led him to showcase his much-talked-about “Pleasure Pit”: an eight-square-foot heated furnishing that harnessed the properties of both a bed and a chair. After receiving backlash from those ruling the interior industry, the innovator took to the streets and delivered his products to celebrities who were keen to be his guinea pigs.

Among these famous faces was Hugh Hefner, the American magazine publisher best known for founding Playboy. When approached by Hall, Hefner bought one of his water beds (and had it upholstered in green velvet) for the Playboy mansion. Because of the publicity that erupted from that particular buyer, Hall’s flotation furniture gained a very particular reputation — but he was still determined to make his audience see how the bed could positively impact their sleep experience and overall health.

So how exactly does a water bed contribute to a person’s well-being? According to Hall, the secret lies in its weightless motion, which enhances both sleep and personal comfort. On top of that, water beds eradicate the problem of ever housing dust mites and bed bugs, both of which can be nasty downsides to our standard home mattresses.

Water bed sales reached $2 billion in 1986, but by that point, Hall’s personal company was entering bankruptcy. Today however, he feels that has has learned from the newfound demand for “retro” products, which is exactly why he has developed a brand new water bed called “Afloat.” This queen-size model includes a heater, a filling up and draining kit, a canvas sling to help maneuver it, and a metal frame, retailing between $1,995 and $2,395.

Within its first few months on the market, Afloat completely sold out, though we’ve been promised that it will soon be available again online. The company guarantees a full refund to all customers within the first 100 nights, but Hall is optimistic that this open-minded millennial generation is going to fall in love with his quirky product pretty quickly.

Retail journalist Warren Shoulberg explains: “This generation doesn’t have the association that water beds eventually got as a place where lonely single men slept in hopes of luring young ladies into their homes. The other thing is that consumers have no idea what’s inside most mattresses. It’s all gobbledygook. It’s this great mystery, and the industry loves it that way. It thrives on that confusion. The water bed is simple. It’s a big bag that holds water.”

The post Charles Hall’s Quest to Revive the Water Bed first appeared on Dornob.

Originally launched on Kickstarter back in 2014, the BedJet is finally back, with a host of upgrades that are guaranteed to make your bed just the right temperature for optimal refreshing rest. As the name suggests, the BedJet essentially pumps temperature-controlled air between the sheets, and it even comes with a remote control (or an app, if you prefer to use your smartphone) for easy fine-tuning. Unlike electric blankets, there are no conductive wires involved here.

The unit itself fits under most beds, with its patented, acoustically dampened blower, ducting system, and outlet nozzle generating and directing a small cushion of air between the upper and lower bedsheets so as to create a tenting effect that allows the air to warm or cool the entire sleeping area. You can use the BedJet with your own bedding, and if your bed frame is too low to allow the unit to sit underneath, you can always purchase an optional stand.

“BedJet has taken a technological leap past sleep sensors that simply monitor and educate you on your prior night’s sleep,” explain its creators. “BedJet was the first product to use muscular bed climate control to hack into your body’s own natural pre-programmed circadian biorhythms to fundamentally alter what your body THINKS it should be doing while you are in bed.”

“Remember waking up in the middle [of the] night to kick the covers off because you were too hot, falling back asleep, and then waking up later too cold? That’s interrupted sleep and a reset to your deep sleep REM clock. It’s also your body not being allowed to achieve the right body core temperature for deep sleep and your brain making a manual adjustment.”

To make use of this feature, you simply enter your age, sex, and body type into the app. After that, the BedJet Biorythym Technology will create a custom sleep temperature profile that makes continuous climate control adjustments in your bed throughout the night. You can create your own profiles, too, experimenting with different ones as you go to see which one works best. There’s even a wake-up feature that lets you “bio-hack” wake-up time by subtly altering your body’s core temperature at the time of your choosing.

But the best part of the BedJet is its ability to create two separate pockets of air within one bed without requiring the sleepers to zip themselves up into individual cocoons. This optional dual zone setup works by way of “cloud” sheets: washable 100-percent paper cotton temperature layers with interior airflow cavities. The nozzles plug into inlets on either side of these sheets to give each sleeper total control over their side of the bed. When the unit is turned on, the sheets inflate, making them look like down-filled duvets.

The BedJet’s 2018 updates include Wi-Fi connectivity for smart home integration, a new color screen remote control, and a new iOS/Android app. Check out the Kickstarter campaign to back the project and get updates on future purchasing opportunities.

The post BedJet 3: Hack Your Body’s Sleep Biorhythms with Climate Control first appeared on Dornob.

One company that focuses on getting you better rested is Dreamlight. This startup has just unveiled an eye mask that’s all about helping you catch up on sleep (and improving the quality of it, too). Dreamlight says that its mask can also lessen the effects of jet lag and project infrared light onto your face to help with under-eye circles.

The Dreamlight is a chunky foam eye mask that wraps around your head and attaches via Velcro. Its design is meant to remove pressure from sensitive areas of your face and block out as much light as possible using special inserts. It also has four speakers embedded in its sides, along with an optical heart rate monitor, infrared sensors, accelerometers, and gyroscopes.

To simplify your experience with the mask, just use the accompanying Dreamlight app. Not only will it tell you how long you rested the night before, but you can also program it to wake you up at a certain time. We personally love the fact that the app lets you choose what ambient sounds to play inside the mask as you’re falling asleep.

Dreamlight has teamed up with 23andMe to craft custom sleep profiles based on people’s genetic profiles. Because of this, a custom six-day jetlag plan is readily available to you should you ever experience exhaustion from traveling across several time zones.

For all of the Dreamlight’s innovative features, the crowd favorite seems to be the light inside the mask, which is generated by a set of LED panels. These panels are part of the mask’s sleep program, which stimulates melatonin production in the brain. Once you’ve fastened on the mask, they produce a gentle orange light for fifteen minutes, which in turn illuminates a guide for your breathing. Inhale as the light goes on, and exhale as it goes off.

When it’s time to wake up, the mask will blast increasingly-light green hues over your eyelids. This allows you to comfortably wake up without any abrupt noises coming from your alarm clock. Just in case the loss of an alarm clock is too much to bear for you, the Dreamlight app also gives you the option of enabling them. Pick white noise, light jazz, or rainforest sounds to serve as your morning wakeup call.

“Once I was ready to go to sleep, I strapped it on, activating a pulsing, warm-colored light and ambient sounds. The Dreamlight rep told me I was supposed to match my breath with the pulse of the light, leading my body to relax and fall asleep faster. I was dubious about using light to make me fall asleep, but I got into the rhythm and was out almost instantly. The green light used in the morning was also pleasant to wake up to, and I really did feel rested. For whatever it’s worth, this entire week at CES, the app I normally use to track my sleep, Sleep Cycle, has said my quality of sleep has hovered around 70 percent. The night I used the Dreamlight mask, Sleep Cycle said my quality of sleep was 90 percent,” says Dani Deahl, a Dreamlight reviewer.

Founder Wlll Wu claims that the eye mask will last up to four nights when fully charged. It’s recommended that you stay on top of charging the eye mask, though, as streaming music on it from your smartphone will lessen its battery life significantly.

The smart eye mask is about to be launched on Indiegogo later this month. The masks will be starting at $100, but there is currently no word on when shipment will take place.

The post No More Sleepless Nights with Dreamlight’s Eye Mask first appeared on Dornob.

Making its debut on Kickstarter and almost immediately being funded well beyond its initial goal, the Omni pillow by Italian innovation studio Banale can wrap around your neck for train, plane, bus, and car rides, fold in half for camping or power napping, or open all the way to add some extra cushioning to hotel pillows. Unlike most inflatable and memory foam designs, the Omni folds down to a surprisingly compact package (about the size of a mango) in a matter of seconds, clipping onto the outside of your bag and taking up virtually zero space. A washable water-resistant cover keeps it clean and dry while on the go.

Each of the pillow’s three shapes has its own special features. When it’s rolled up, it can be fixed at neck level with an adjustable strap, which you can also use to change the amount of support being provided to you. It also has a pocket for your phone, a headphone jack, and a “blanket catcher” tab to keep your whole body  covered while you sleep.

The double-cushioned mode offers three and a half inches of memory foam, with elastic bands on either side being used to hold it all together. Slip your arm inside to elevate your head and create a comfortable position for napping at a desk or on an airplane tray. When unfolded all the way for use as a pillow topper, it measures a full 21 inches in width, and you can use the elastic straps to secure it to another pillow.

The Omni is available in four colorways: “oceano” blue, “azalea” pink, “notte” black, and “sportive” gray with a neon green trim. Kickstarter backers can also choose from additional rewards like a companion blanket, an eye mask, ear plugs, a travel towel, and a travel toothbrush that boasts a built-in toothpaste pump. A single pillow will run you 45 euros (about $54.94), but add-ons and bulk purchases will naturally cost a little more.

Weighing in at just over 12 ounces, the Omni is lighter in weight than a lot of other memory foam travel pillows and a whole lot more versatile. It’s easy to say that all you really need to make a good pillow is some stuffing and a case, and that adding anything more would be like reinventing the wheel, but the Omni takes a few obvious limitations of that simple design and solves all of its usual functionality problems for a result that’s actually a lot more practical.

The post Sleep Anywhere, Any Way You Want With the Omni Packable Pillow first appeared on Dornob.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvS0KixjOMc
Worried that you won’t be able to communicate when you travel? Travis has you covered. This sleek device can handle 80 languages, and it’s designed for the casual tourist as well as the business traveler. The incorporation of AI technology means the program learns as you use it, and it’s always instantly ready to jump into action, whether you have a Wi-Fi connection or not.
Travis is donating translator units to Movement on the Ground, an agency that helps displaced refugees. In fact, if you buy a translator yourself before the end of the year, Travis will donate $10 to the organization.

Lifepack Carry-On Closet

Hate packing? Get frustrated when you arrive at your destination and can’t find a particular shirt in the crumpled mess in your suitcase? Inventor Adrian Solgaard shares your pain. He’s also come up with a clever solution.
The Lifepack Carry-On Closet is a standard-size carry-on suitcase with a secret: its inside is lined with integrated and retractable shelves, so all your clothes arrive fresh and organized. The case has a gunmetal-gray aluminum frame and a black polycarbonate shell. “Its rigid shape is able to withstand an adult standing or sitting on it,” Solgaard says.
We love the way the case acts as a wedge to keep the shelving steady when it’s open. Top marks for ingenuity.

Voyage Pillow

Catching some z’s on a long flight can make all the difference. Just a few hours’ sleep lets you jump right into adventure when you arrive at your destination.
The Voyage Pillow is compact enough to fit in your carry-on and is filled with microbeads that mold themselves around your face for a comfortable fit. The designers also incorporated a clever eye mask into it, which you can pull over your face if you want to pretend it’s nighttime.
You can loop the pillow around your neck and put your head on it at the side or right in front, and it even supports the back of your neck as you sleep. Its plush interior only adds more comfort into the mix, and the whole shebang is machine-washable.

Nommi: 4G Hotspot with Global Wi-Fi

If you can be patient, you’ll be rewarded with what this product’s inventors describe as “the world’s first mobile router that is both useful at home and abroad and doesn’t look boring!” They’ve combined an LTE hotspot, virtual SIM technology, and dual-band Wi-Fi to keep you connected wherever you travel. And if all that isn’t enough, the unit also functions as a powerbank and a Qi wireless charger. You can opt for a new data plan altogether, or simply use your SIM card to tap into your existing one.
The Nommi is a crowdsourced product, and it’s currently set to start shipping in June 2018.

Scratch Travel Journal

Of course you’ll want to remember every detail of your trip, and this handy journal will help you do just that. Before you leave home, use it as your travel planner and checklist, and when you’re on the road, jot down notes and thoughts in it. You can also scratch off the places you visit on the journal’s interactive map.

The post 5 Cool Ways to Make Travel Better first appeared on Dornob.

1. Sleep Shepherd

The inventors of Sleep Shepherd claim that it’s the only sleep device that “actively improves your sleep” by monitoring your brainwaves in real-time while you snooze. You wear a headband with embedded (no pun intended) sensors on it, and when you turn in for the night, the technology kicks in. “By combining specialized binaural beats with EEG sleep monitoring, the Sleep Shepherd’s patent-pending biofeedback system helps improve your sleep like no other sleep device,” explain the designers. “The two components work together to help constantly optimize your sleep cycle.”
When it’s time to wake up, the Sleep Shepherd’s “Smart Alarm” eases you out of your dreams, so you open your eyes feeling refreshed and ready to face the day.

2. Dreampad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK9HKaI9JZg
The Dreampad may look like a regular pillow, but it’s actually a clever tool to help you get to sleep. It was originally designed to help children with high levels of anxiety relax. Parents and therapists raved about it, and when they started using it on themselves, the designers knew it was time to expand and share their product with adults, too.
So what’s its secret? Well, the Dreampad plays music that only you can hear. It uses the principle of “bone conduction,” explain its inventors, and “as the sound vibrations move toward the bony area surrounding your middle and inner ear, it is triggering your body’s relaxation response.”
The tech whizzes behind the device use song structures and tempos that research has proven to induce sleep and relaxation. They also equipped the device with some sounds from nature.
The Dreampad’s accompanying music app boasts a user-friendly interface, a timer, and a gentle alarm to wake you from your slumber in the morning.

3. ReflexPillow

Irish back and neck pain specialist Noel O’Connor has 30 years of experience treating patients. “I found that something as simple as the pillow we lie on was the biggest culprit,” he says.
So, he invented a pillow using a special “reflex foam,” which was designed to prevent neck and back pain from even starting and keep your spine aligned while you sleep. On his website, O’Connor says: “While your mattress may support your lower spine, your upper spine (neck area) needs even more support, as this is the area where most soft tissue and muscle damage occurs. It’s also the area that is responsible for a lot of issues with your general health.”

4. Dagsmejan Sleepwear

The designers at Dagsmejan realized that technological advances in sportswear were being announced left and right, but people’s pajamas had barely evolved at all since their invention. “By taking insights from high-performance sportswear and adapting them to our body’s physiological sleep needs, we have reinvented sleepwear for a good night and a great day,” reads the company website.
The sleepwear, which is now available for pre-order, has four main features. For starters, it’s made with high-tech natural fiber and boasts a clever design with various thermal zones along its body. The fabric used to make it is four times better than cotton at drawing moisture away from the skin, and it’s quick-drying. It’s “designed for optimal sleep in terms of both comfort and fit, featuring a minimum number of flat seams, a tagless design, soft elastic waistbands, and a natural stretch.” Plus, the fabric is super soft and smooth, and it’s guaranteed to last you a long time.

The post 4 New Products to Help You Sleep Better first appeared on Dornob.

Hästens is billing its “Vividus” model as “the world’s most luxurious bed.” That slogan might actually be true, considering that each Vividus has been handcrafted from top to bottom and requires around 320 man-hours to make! As you might have already guessed, Vividus was made using only the highest-quality materials.

The Vividus is such a luxury item, you can even arrange to meet it in person before slapping down your credit card. According to Hästens, “A luxury bed like Vividus can only be truly experienced in person. During your private, VIP experience you’ll be guided through Vividus’ construction, your personalized options and immerse yourself in its tranquility.”
Looking for a restful, relaxing afternoon? Try taking a Vividus bed for a test drive.

The post Hästens: The Best Sleep of Your Life first appeared on Dornob.

The Neuroon Open sleep mask uses a set of built-in sensors to collect data throughout the night, documenting how much time your brain spends emitting alpha, beta, theta, and delta waves. The mask also monitors your heart rate, blood oxygen level, skin temperature, and movement. The system processes this information and converts into an easy-to-read set of sleep analytics, which tells you exactly how much deep, light, and REM sleep you got. If you aren’t using those eight hours as efficiently as you could be, the Neuroon Open will even give you some helpful tips on how to improve your nightly habits.

The mask’s Kickstarter page explains, “After each sleep you will be given a short test in which you estimate your sleep quality and sleepiness after waking on VAS. This self-evaluation system records changes in the subjective reception of your sleep. This is then combined with metabolic and sleep-staging data in order to provide information about the best sleep pattern to suit you.”

“As a voluntary extra option, you will have the possibility to try two short games which measure your mental capacities after sleep. The working memory test will check your perception and working memory condition upon waking. The cognition test will check your cognitive capability. During the first ten days, Neuroon Open will gather data from the tests to personalize its analytic software. After this period, you will be informed about your daily results compared to the average, allowing you to choose the best sleep pattern for your top mental condition.”

To see your “sleep score,” simply put on the mask when you go to bed and check the accompanying smartphone app in the morning. If you’re not a big fan of traditional alarms, you can instruct the Neuroon Open to simulate the light of a natural sunrise when it’s time to wake up. Heavy sleepers needn’t worry, either. Anyone who isn’t awoken by the mask’s lights will be greeted by a set of gentle vibrations and a final audio alert from their phone. The best part is, the Neuroon Open lets you choose which stage of sleep you’d prefer to wake up from, meaning you’ll never have to interrupt you deepest slumbers again!

It’s easy to confuse this gadget for something out of a science fiction movie, but we assure you that the Neuroon Open is the real deal. The mask can also be programmed to emit a series of lights, sounds, and vibrations that help induce lucid dreaming, a metacognitive state in which a person realizes that they’re asleep and is able to control what happens in their dream. If that sounds a little too intense for you, use the mask to guide you through a few mindfulness meditation sessions instead.

The most sci-fi element of them all? Probably the fact that you can connect the Neuroon Open to your smart home system to control your house as you sleep. Set it to automatically turn your bedroom or bathroom lights on if you wake up in the middle of the night, or have the mask lower the temperature when you enter REM sleep.

The Neuroon Open was designed using open-source code, which allows anyone to access it and take a closer look at its inner workings. If you’re particularly tech-savvy, you can even program your own applets for it! The mask is being funded on Kickstarter until July 27th, so be sure to order one for the early bird price of $139 while you still can.

The post Hack Your Sleep with This Dream-Enhancing Mask first appeared on Dornob.