Kickstarter is known for raising funds and helping ingenious startups raise funds to carry their products to the production phase. What we have today can be added to one the largest crowdfunding hits in history. The Sense Sleep monitoring system is capable of monitoring a myriad of factors to help you sleep better and was launched on Kickstarter earlier this month and is ready to end the campaign after raising funds worth $2.5 million.
The inventor of the gadget, James Proud who is 23 years old writes on the Kickstarter page; ‘It feels like a long time ago now, but just over 24 days ago I wrote about how we all felt at Hello after reaching over one million dollars in pledges after just four days. It feels surreal that we have now doubled that to over two million dollars in pledges.’ James grew up in South London and is now working out of San Francisco.
He previously wrote; ‘Never in our wildest dreams did we expect this and in such a short amount of time.’ The Sense system is capable of producing a sleep score for each night and even caters in for the neighbor’s dog barking at 4 am. He says; ‘We spend a third of our lives asleep, and the rest of our time is completely dictated by how we slept – everything from how we eat to how we exercise.’
According to James, the current sleep monitoring gadgets are flawed. He says; ‘It’s been a neglected area, but now there are a lot of apps and wearable gadgets that track our sleep. However, they don’t seem to work too well. When you look at everything else, people aren’t looking at why you sleep badly.’
The Sense system program has two major components. There’s one main control ‘orb’ that rests on the bedside table and has been equipped with sensors that are capable of monitoring literally everything. It has a speaker incorporated into it as well that is used to play white noise and alarm in the morning. The second component is known as ‘sleep pill’ and gets attached to the pillow in order to keep a track of the movements throughout the night. Two sleep pills can be used simultaneously too; best thing for couples since using this one can tell who was snoring and who got affected by it.
James says; ‘It can unobtrusively track sleep – you should have to think about it, you should just go to bed. Bedroom is key – but room we look at least. There are all these environmental factors, but we are in the dark about them. We can see what’s happening when you’re asleep – are there loud noises, are you sleep talking, for instance. You can see two main views – a breakdown of the previous night’s sleep, but also a pre-sleep test that shows a live output from the data telling you historical patterns, so what temperature you sleep best at, for instance.’
The smart alarm option will wake you up in the morning at the right time in your sleep cycle so that you’re fresh and not feeling ‘groggy’ when you wake up.