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It’s midnight on a Sunday and you’ve finally made it back home to your comfy bed. But as you slip into your pajamas and climb under the covers, you can’t keep yourself from tossing and turning. You know you have a work meeting at seven the next morning, but you can’t fall asleep. What’s a busy woman to do?
Studies have shown just how important sleep is in terms of our health and overall quality of life. Not only does it refresh us after a long day, but it allows our brains to sift through all the the latest information we’ve received from our external environment. A lack of sleep has been correlated with high blood pressure, a weaker immune system, weight problems and a whole host of other issues.
Seeing as our world is steadily becoming more mobile and type A oriented, (i.e. constantly multi tasking, getting ahead in the workplace) it can be difficult to squeeze in eight hours of quality sleep each night. Here are ENTITY’s favorite new technologies – from apps to apparel – that can help you catch some shut-eye.
If you’re on the hunt to figure out how your sleep habits are truly affecting you each night, Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock has every tool you need. After downloading the app on your iPhone, the program will analyze your sleep patterns throughout the night. For women who still have nightmares about their blaring high-school alarm clock, this is one upgrade that you may actually enjoy.
Taking a short trip back to biology class, you might remember the “sleep cycle,” which is a 90-minute process in which sleepers transition from light sleep to deep sleep to dream sleep (also known as REM). If you’ve ever been woken up in the middle of a deep dream, you’ve probably felt like a zombie for a few hours afterward. The Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock makes sure this doesn’t happen by gently waking you during your lightest phase of sleep. Waking up will never seem so … refreshing.
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Are you the type of woman who prefers to sleep in a negligee or your boyfriend’s oversized T-shirt? Whether you’re a fashionista or comfort is your number one priority, the Nyx Somnus Sleep Shirt will win you over with its combination of function and fashion.
This seemingly sci-fi nightshirt comes embedded with thin, flexible sensors that monitor the breathing patterns of those who wear it. A small chip located in the pocket of the shirt receives data from the sensors. This data shows the various phases of your sleep – whether it be REM, light sleep or deep sleep – and transfers to the Nyx website, which analyzes users’ sleep health.
You’ve probably heard raving reviews from those who use a Fitbit – a wireless and wearable device that tracks “every part of your day” like activity, exercise and food. Maybe walking 10,000 or more steps a day makes you collapse into bed without a problem every night. However, your Fitbit can actually help you improve your sleeping health as well.
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The Fitbit can monitor sleep in both a “normal” or a “sensitive” setting, marking the amount of times you move or re-awaken. It uses all of this data to calculate users’ “sleep efficacy.” If you’ve ever wondered what you look like when you’re asleep, Fitbit can paint quite the digital picture.
Similar to the Fitbit, the Up by Jawbone is an activity monitor that tracks what you eat, your quality of sleep and the number of steps you take. It also offers social feature that creates “challenges” which anyone also using a Jawbone Up can request. You can also accept health challenges from others. For fashionistas, the Up may have a slight edge over the Fitbit. The Up Move can be put in a clip and worn on clothing, inserted in a band and worn as a bracelet and comes in a variety of colors. Fitness never looked so elegant.
You may never get to fly into outer space, but you can still sleep like an astronaut by using the sleep tracking app originally designed for astronauts. In this app, neuroscientists combined a variety of services, ranging from a “revive cycle alarm” that progressively increases in frequency and volume to slowly bring you out of sleep to a “relaxation program” that uses music to relax your cardiac and respiratory systems and synchronize brain activity. If you’re a businesswoman who loves to power nap between meetings, you’ll also enjoy Sleep Genius’s psychoacoustic music to trigger a short, light nap.
READ MORE: 5 Meditation Apps to Help You Sleep
Whether you just got back from a girl’s night or a late meeting at the office, falling asleep – and getting a good night’s sleep – is often easier said than done. With these new gadgets, though, technology is on your side … counting sheep may soon be replaced by clicking a button.
