If you’re anything like me, getting the most out of your sleeping schedule can be rough. We’re all busy. None of us have enough hours in the day. And so one of the (unfortunately) most common things on our schedule to take a hit is our sleep. The thing is, sleep is incredibly important. If you’re not getting enough sleep, and enough good sleep, restorative sleep, then the time that you have managed to carve out for work and play just isn’t going to be nearly as valuable. As much as a lot of us hate to admit it, we’re animals. We’re chimps wearing shoes and typing on touchscreens. So there just isn’t any getting around our biological need for quality sleep nor the benefits that can only be reaped once we achieve it. That said, there are ways for us to better measure our sleeping patterns, better understand the impacts of when we sleep and how and for how long, and better realize our sleep goals without disrupting our fast-paced and tight schedules: tech. 

The mattress. That’s one of the most obvious places to look when it comes to improving your sleep. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most expensive. Even a standard mattress is going to cost a pretty penny, but, these days, tech-packed sleeping systems can quickly cost an arm and a leg. But the fact is, as long as you’re not looking for a solution for nighttime acid reflux or blood flow problems, a bed that comes equipped with adjustable head-height and leg-height might be overkill. I know, I know. It’s cool. I’m sure movie night in bed is a whole lot more comfortable when you can use a remote or your phone to sit up rather than a pile of pillows. And who doesn’t dream of getting a bit (or a lot) of work done from the comfort of your own bed? The thing is, when it comes to tech, we’re not just talking about the tech that can be crammed into something like a mattress, we also want to look at the tech that’s being used to produce mattresses. These days, a soft but firm but aligns-to-you-personal-contours mattress isn’t the providence of companies like Tempurpedic alone. On the contrary, companies like Nectar, Dreamcloud, and Helix are producing mattresses of similar quality and at often reasonable prices. And a lot of people are swearing by the tech that went into designing and producing Purple mattresses, which promise balanced give and support, ventilation, and more from their patented GelFlex® Grid. Then again, not going to name any names, but there are those of us who actually get too cold at night, and not too hot. Some couples might be interested in a bed that is independently adjustable on both sides. And while these kinds of beds are going to run you a bit of a higher bill, sometimes it’s just the price worth paying versus fighting over the thermostat or the blankets. 

Of course, there are plenty of other tech solutions for those looking to better understand and more accurately improve their sleep–solutions that won’t set you out several grand. For example, for only a few hundred bucks (plus a monthly membership fee) you can buy into the Oura Ring biometric system to gain keen insights on your sleeping patterns and find out how best to adjust your sleep moving forward. And with other features on top of the daily customized sleep analysis that the little ring offers, like heart-rate monitoring, temperature trend tracking, and more, it’s perhaps not surprising that many consumers are turning to this more low-key approach to biometrics. That said, at this price point, you’re heading squarely into smartwatch territory. And while smartwatches can be a lot more cumbersome, they can also be a lot more useful depending on the customer. It may be some time before we see a smart ring that can comfortably and easily bring your music with you when you work out or let you quickly view and respond to messages. And I would like to say that it all comes down to preference at this point, but the actual fact remains that smartwatches have come a long way in terms of capability on a budget when we move away from Apple and Android. Fitbit have been knocking it out of the park for some time, and their wearables are far more affordable than some of the premium brands and their integrated solutions. And their sleep-tracking is nothing to turn up your chin at either. While many might tend to prefer the experience of an Apple Watch, for example, some of the gear from Fitbit is just as capable but comes in at a fraction of the cost. Furthermore, one of the biggest complaints about many of the currently available Apple Watches (especially in the context of sleep data) is about the batteries. They just don’t cut it. A lot of users find themselves having to charge their devices every single night or else juggle taking it off and charging it intermittently throughout the day. Not ideal, especially when you want to wear your biometric device to sleep in order to, well, track your sleep. 

It also looks like there’s some other cool tech out there that I haven’t personally tried, like Amazon’s Halo Rise, which purports to utilize sleep tracking to assess the best time to wake you up, and then does so slowly and gently each morning with a smart alarm and a “wake-up light” that is said to simulate a sunrise. That said, I’m hesitant to put another Amazon device in my bedroom, especially one that studies my movement and breathing when it already feels like smart devices are reading my mind and sending me ads for everything I so much as mention out loud a single time. Still, I think there is something to be said about this approach, and how it might be able to provide a benefit in terms of the wakeup process and circadian rhythm maintenance. 

So if you’re like me and good quality sleep is more elusive lately than ever, it’s looking like there’s a bright light on the horizon in the form of tech designed to help us achieve our sleep goals even in a busy age of sleeplessness. As long as, I suppose, the light on the horizon isn’t coming from a product that is surely feeding my sleep data straight to advertisers.