There are five distinct stages of sleep our bodies should cycle through at least once each day and a kickstarted business would like to help users avoid the grogginess that can come after improperly aborting the sleep cycle.
Hello Inc., the company behind Sense, a glowing polycarbonate orb, says it intends to reinvent the sleep alarm, and now boasts more than $1 million to make it happen.
With an initial Kickstarter goal of $100,000, Sense's support has quickly ballooned to close to $2 million halfway through its 30-day fundraiser.
Essentially, Sense is a smart alarm, says James Proud, CEO of Hello Inc. How we perform each day is heavily influenced by how we slept the previous night, so it less than optimal for a person to have to rely on a device they have to remember to charge and set to ensure that the individual wakes up at the right time the next day, said Proud.
"Your day is purely influenced by how you slept the previous night," said Proud. "How you function at work, how you function at school, how you eat, how you exercise, how you feel, is all depending on your previous night of sleep."
The Sense orb, which sits on a nightstand, monitors sleep hours, tracks motion and serves as an alarm, according to Sense' Kickstarter campaign. It syncs with mobile devices to share data it collects on the levels of noise, light, air particles and other elements of the bedroom.
"We all have a natural sleep cycle, but a normal alarm will wake you up regardless of when it's best for you," said Proud. "With Sense's smart alarm, it knows how to wake you up at the right time. So you don't start the day feeling terrible. If you want to wake up at 9:30, but you're already half awake at 9:15, then your alarm should go off then and not wait for you to fall deeper into sleep."
Sense's Kickstarter, a bit more serious than John Stewart's latest campaign, has been projected to raise approximately $4 million before the conclusion of its 30-day fundraiser, which has been set to end on Aug. 22. The Sense orb has been priced at $129 and has been slated for a November 2014 release date.
Sense will have direct competition from Beddit when the sleep orb goes to market in November. The more expensive Beddit, priced at $200, employs a strip design that lies across its users' bedding.
Described as a sleep coach, Beddit keeps tabs on sleep quality and duration. It also monitors resting heart rate, breathing and snoring to churn out "actionable" data the next day.
