For some people getting to sleep at night is the hardest thing of the day. Sure, you could take a cocktail of sleep supplements at night, but this is not a very natural way to fall asleep. There are many natural aids that will help you fall asleep faster and get a better quality of sleep. We’ve selected an overview of our favorite sleep gadgets and sleeping advice of 2024 so you’ll sleep naturally, like a baby from now on.
NightBuds – Earbuds That Help You Sleep Better
Yes, earbuds now also contain sleep tracking technology. The NightBuds are earphones with a very small and soft profile that you can wear comfortably in your bed. They pair with your phone over Bluetooth to enable their special sleeping features.
In the Kokoon app you can configure a soothing soundscape to fall asleep to, in immersive 4D binaural audio. The earbuds detect when you’re dozing off to sleep and will fade out the audio and switch to one of several noise profiles to block outside disturbances.
Over time, the personalized sleeping coach will make the right suggestions based on your sleeping profile, so that you get a finetuned way of falling asleep fast and a solid night of sleep to wake up well rested.
Get the NightBuds on Indiegogo
CozyPhones – Headband Headphones to Sleep With
The CozyPhones solves one problem I’ve always had; falling asleep with earphones in. It’s just not very comfortable waking up or getting to fall asleep with earphones. The CozyPhones is is a comfortable headband with a set of tiny speakers that you can easily to take out when washing the headband or to readjust them on your hears. Put on your favorite sleep music playlist and you’ll be off to dreamland in no time. Your ears will love you for it.
The CozyPhones also doubles as a sleeping mask, since you can simply pull it over your eyes when you prefer pitch darkness.
DreamOn – a Sleeping Watch for Insomniacs
This promising sleep gadget is the result of years of brain and sleeping research. The DreamOn is a watch that transmits subtle, relaxing pulses on your wrist when you’re lying in bed. These pulses align with your brain waves, putting you in a resting state, ready to fall asleep.
In a way this watch feels like counting sheep. Before you know it you’ll be sound asleep with the DreamOn. During daytime the watch also helps you to assist during meditation or to kickstart that long overdue power nap at work.
The DreamOn sleep watch already ran a successful campaign on Indiegogo and now has a v2 which you can order on the official DreamOn website, via the link below.
Order the DreamOn Sleeping Watch
A Weighted Blanket
If you suffer from insomnia or anxiety a weighted blanket is often recommended. Having around 10% of your body weight lying on top of you feels like you’re being held. This in turn, sends out a feeling of safety so you’ll have less troubles falling asleep. While I don’t suffer from a bad case of insomnia I often have restless legs in bed at night and a weighted blanket does wonders getting my body to calm down. Minimized movement equals deeper sleep.
It’s difficult selecting just one of these blankets for our sleep gadget starter kit, that’s why we’ve picked three, each of which is a good choice.
Gravity Blanket – the premium weighted blanket
This is probably the most popular of the bunch. The Gravity Blanket reeled in nearly 5 million bucks on Kickstarter back when the project launched and is a staple name for weighted blankets. It comes at a premium price, but you’ll have a quality blanket keeping you asleep.
The Gravity blanket has gridded stitching to keep its glass beads evenly distributed. Internal clasps keep the inner weighted blanket in place. You’ll have a soft, removable duvet-cover for added comfort.
Shop the Gravity Blanket on Amazon
YnM – a budget friendly weighted blanket
The YnM blanket is a popular choice if the Gravity Blanket price is a bit too steep for your budget. This weighted blanket comes in many sizes and weights. The glass beads are also evenly distributed on the YnM and because there aren’t a lot of cotton fibers it breathes well. For the duvet, there are plenty of cover choices on the YnM. The price is really the reason why you should get one. It’s a good quality blanket for below a hundred bucks.
Shop the YnM weighted blanket on Amazon
Huglee – the most promising weighted blanket
The Huglee is now running its Kickstarter campaign and already shot way past its funding goals. This weighted blanket has several upsides over its competitors. It attaches using velcro, so it’s easy to take out when you want to wash the covers. Secondly, it’s made of a combination of bamboo and cloth so is suitable for all seasons. Last, there’s reinforced stitching, so little chance of this breaking and the filling spilling over your bed.
Order the Huglee on its official website
Dodow Sleep Aid Device
The Dodow is a smart invention for beating insomnia and cutting down the time you’re falling asleep. This is a metronome device you’ll put on your bedside table. A soothing, blue halo will expand and retract on your ceiling. Your breathing should follow this light pattern. In eight or twenty minutes time (this is configurable), your breathing should slow down. This allows your brain to get into a resting state. In the meantime the focus on this light helps drown out all the thoughts that normally keep you awake at night.
The Dodow is a great sleep gadget that helped thousands of insomniacs not look up to getting to bed anymore.
Blue Light Blocking Sleep Glasses
One thing I know about sleep is that you shouldn’t mess with your melatonin levels. The light from your smartphone is harming those levels, decreasing your chances of having a quality sleep. Luckily, there are smart people that made special sleep glasses that block out the harming part of your smartphone and computer lighting.
If you do want to take your smartphone into bed before sleeping, a pair of Felix Gray glasses will make sure you still have a good, natural sleep.
Ostrich Pillow – the best sleep gadget for power naps
A post about sleep gadgets isn’t complete without mentioning the coolest of them all. The ostrich pillow is something for the brave and daring. But once you’ve crossed that border, there’s nothing more comfortable to take a power nap in than this pillow. Stick your head in it, tuck your arms in the sides and doze off. You can use this, sleeping on a desk or as a comfortable neck pillow for sleeping in the plane.
Speaking about plane flights, the team behind the Ostrich pillow now also released the Ostrich Pillow Mini. While you can’t tuck your entire head into this mini-version anymore, this one allows you to put your arm into it and rest your head comfortably on its soft fabric. Additionally, it’s a great replacement for your neck pillow when you want to take a power-nap on your flight.
Snooz White Noise Machine
I didn’t know there was something like a white noise machine, until someone pointed out that putting on my box fan just to fall asleep faster was kind of an electricity waste.
The Snooz has an internal fan that transmits a soothing white noise sound next to your bed. You can adjust the tone from a gentle box fan to full-on airplane cabin type noise and also control it via your app.
The benefit is that you can easily drown out any environment that might be bothering you while trying to sleep (noisy hotel room, barking neighbor dog) and that the non-looping white noise allows you to tune in and fall asleep, all while using a lot less electricity than your average room fan.
This sleeping gadget is also perfect if your kids are light sleepers and are easily awoken or distracted by noises in and around the house.
We’re sure that this starter kit provides the best options for falling asleep naturally. If there’s still an issue even with these sleeping products here’s a bonus military technique that gets you to sleep in 2 minutes flat.
Relax the muscles in your face, including tongue, jaw and the muscles around the eyes
Drop your shoulders as far down as they’ll go, followed by your upper and lower arm, one side at a time
Breathe out, relaxing your chest followed by your legs, starting from the thighs and working down
You should then spend 10 seconds trying to clear your mind before thinking about one of the three following images:
- You’re lying in a canoe on a calm lake with nothing but a clear blue sky above you
- You’re lying in a black velvet hammock in a pitch-black room
- You say “don’t think, don’t think, don’t think” to yourself over and over for about 10 seconds.
Do you have any additions to our 2024 list of sleep gadgets? Enter your suggestions in the comments below.