We spend about one third of our life sleeping. Many of us try to shorten this time and fill it with “more productive” activities. However, this eventually works against us as sleep deprivation has negative effects on our productivity, mood and health
30% of people in the USA suffer from occasionally sleep disorder or insomnia (The Harvard Medical School Guide)
Technology is trying to aid this sleep deprivation epidemic in the modern world. But our research found that most sleep aid devices on the market are only slightly more advanced alarm clocks, that don’t provide a true sleep solution. This is what drove us to develop the Somnus system.
Somnus System
The Somnus system consists of 3 elements:
Somnus
Saturn tracker
Somnus mobile app
Somnus has 3 sleep programs and 3 supplementary programs to help you fall asleep quickly, sleep deep, and wake up energized! The programs are very easy to use and manage with Somnus mobile app as explain as below:
The best way to fall asleep smoothly and sleep soundly is to relax. The Somnus Easy sleep program is designed to simulate natural sleep environment our bodies got used to throughout human evolution, way before civilization with its artificial lighting and numerous distractions.
During your sleep, Somnus will continue to monitor your bedroom environmental data, tracking your sleep quality and recording the light and noise that disturb your sleep. Also, with the continuing of the soft music, negative ions or white noise and essential oil aroma helping you switch from light sleep to deep sleep smoothly.
Somnus’s Smart Wake Up program detects when you have entered your light sleep cycle and uses a combination of sound and negative ions to wake you up at your highest possible energy level. Once you are fully awake, Somnus will say “Good Morning, Master!” to wake you up warmly.
Somnus’s Power Nap program helps you doze off for 10~30 minutes, and recharge your body and mind, whenever you feel like it. Napping has been scientifically proven to improve your overall health and mood, while encouraging creativity. See what Winston Churchill had to say about napping:
Nature has not intended mankind to work from eight in the morning until midnight without that refreshment of blessed oblivion which, even if it only lasts twenty minutes, is sufficient to renew all the vital forces.
Generates millions of negative ions and disperses them into the air. Negative ions bind with particulates in the air – such as floating fungi, dust and pollen – causing them to descend to the floor, helping to prevent allergies. Most importantly, the negative ions also act like airborne vitamins, helping to refresh your lungs and rejuvenate your brain and body.
Diffuses essential oils into the air to create a pleasing and relaxing atmosphere. Your room will smell like a spring meadow full of flowers, trees, plants, and refresh air! Take a deep breath and experience the beauty of nature!
According to the National Sleep Foundation:
In order to get a better sleep, you should surround yourself with scents you like. For example, lavender may decrease your heart rate and blood pressure. Soothing scents can improve your mood and help you prepare to sleep.
Vitaroma Diffuser Technology is patent pending.
Choose program with different color lights you preferred to display together with the Vitaroma program and music you like to create the wonderful relaxing environment.
Somnus has an ambient sound conditioner feature. You can choose from selections such as white noise, pink noise or calming rain to improve your sleep. It also has prerecorded soft music to help you get to sleep and the smart alarm features music to wake you up at the right point in your sleep cycle. You can also upload the MP3 music you like to Somnus for playing back.
Somnus also has a user-friendly gesture operations design for your convenient to use. The video is shown below.
Somnus comes with a tracking device called Saturn tracker. It is a 32-bit MCU with precise 3D accelerometer, capable of sensing your movements throughout the day and night. Come nightfall, it tracks how long you slept, light sleep, sound sleep and awake and a result of sleep score will show you in your mobile app the next day. It comes with a clip and a wristband.
The data stored in the Saturn tracker is all then synced seamlessly via Bluetooth Low Energy to your mobile phone. No worrying about pairing or syncing, it just works!
The Saturn tracker battery lasts for up to a month, depending on usage, so there is no need to charge it every day. It is also water-resistant.
If you have a partner they can wear the second Saturn tracker. The Saturn trackers are capable of recording each of your sleep activities separately, and Somnus can determine if your partner’s snoring or movement is disturbing your sleep.
The Somnus mobile app integrates all of the above features together into easy to use iPhone and Android apps.
The app will display your sleep result of previous night.
First, it will show you the amount of time you spend in light sleep, sound sleep, awake, what time you woke up, what time you fell asleep, time spent in bed and give you a Sleep Score based on this information.
Second, it will display the time stamped record of interruptions to your sleep from external conditions or disturbances. Allowing you to play them back later and determine the specific causes, such as loud noises or intruding lights.
The app also have prepare some tips and solutions for you to improve your sleep as well. It supports the cloud service for remote access to your bedroom environmental data.
Specifications
Design
Somnus takes its inspiration from a pebble rounded to perfection by the flow of a river. It delivers the sound of the river, the light from the sun and the fresh air from the woods. Its stylish design fits into your room and the precise sensors and software work perfectly together to help you get the best sleep of your life.
Somnus is available in two simple colors:
The Saturn tracker is currently only available in black.
We have integrated all of the electronic parts on printed circuit boards. There is no signal interference. The speaker, blower fan, ionizer, thermal pad, LEDs, and sensors have been integrated in an innovative way to fit into a relatively small case. The result is a masterpiece of engineering on the inside and a masterpiece of design on the outside.
If you are reading this – probably yes. Sleep deprivation is a modern epidemic. Somnus is for everyone who cares about their sleep. If you want to be healthy and want to have a better sleep then Somnus is for you!
For the past 10 months we have worked, in cooperation with Sleep Center of Medical University in Taiwan, to come up with the most comprehensive and technologically advanced sleep aid. We’ve studied a variety of medical information, including from The US National Sleep Foundation and Harvard Medical School, in order to develop a revolutionary sleep-aid system. We choose the best possible combination of sleep aid devices and then put all our efforts into designing, coding, prototyping, testing, simulating, modifying and refining them into a single, revolutionary sleep product.
Below pictures show the measurement of brain wave during exercise and sleep. From the experiments we found that the theta wave not only display in sleep but also appear after certain amount of exercise. We assume the exercise may also helps the brain to do detoxication like University of Rochester Medical Center research team found – the glymphatic system helps to clean the harmful wastes of brain during sleep.
Also, from our lighting experiments the dimming red light and sound or music will trigger your drowsiness if together with the negative ions and essential oil aroma you will fall asleep quickly. First of all, fall asleep easily and sleep soundly are the keys of good quality of sleep and Smart wake up become an icing on the cake!
Source: About Health Reference: TEDEd
We have completed our second EVT build (engineering validation testing) to incorporate a number of changes and improvements we discovered in first EVT, which involved mechanical, electronic, manufacturing, assembling and testing the functionality of all the sensors involved in Somnus and the communication with the Mercury.
We are now moving into DVT (design verification testing) and will complete by 6/30 where we will test everything: from the mechanical and electronic, to firmware and software to make sure everything works as designed.
The final stage is PVT (production verification testing), which is designed to make sure the production quality is 100% after assembly, testing and final inspection on the production line. Our manufacturing partners have over 20 years of manufacturing experience and have built and shipped millions of devices. They can guarantee that a quality product will be shipped to our backers and customers.
Building with Somnus
You can access your data anytime through our convenient app. You can also upload the data to your PC. It’s your data, you can do whatever you want with it.
We are constantly on the lookout for products which can synergize with Somnus, and are seeking new partners for product integration.
We want to know from you, the user, what you think of Somnus. We believe that a healthy dialogue with our customers can help make our product even better!