Dreamlight mask uses light, sound to lull you to sleep at CES
The mask hugs your entire head to get you to calm down and get some shut-eye. Plus, its app tracks how well you've slept.
Can you relax when there's a pillow wrapped around your head that streams a barrage of ambient nose into your ears and pulses orange light onto your eyelids? I felt more amped than calm when I tried on the Dreamlight, a Bluetooth-connected sleep mask on display on Tuesday at the CES tech show here in Las Vegas. The creators of the mask will launch an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for the product this month.
The Dreamlight is a gray, cushioned mask that covers your eyes and ears. After you fasten it on, an orange light dims and illuminates that is supposed to be a guide for your breathing: inhale as the light goes on, exhale as it goes off. Ambient sound also plays to block out noise -- I heard a mixture of what sounded like light jazz and rainforest sounds.
When you finally get to sleep, the Dreamlight app keeps track of your sleeping vitals so in the morning you can see how well you slept.
This is Dreamlight, a sleep mask that plays white noise and displays lights to guide your breathing to help you fall asleep. #CES2018 pic.twitter.com/bT6vpFy1ii
— Ashlee Clark Thompson (@AshleeEats) January 10, 2018
Dreamlight is one of several companies we've spotted at CES this year that have taken a stab at giving you a better night's sleep. For example, the Nokia Sleep pad goes under your mattress and tells you about your slumber, and Sleep Number wants its mattresses to track your sleep and even diagnose health conditions.
The creators of Dreamlight also have lofty aspirations beyond good sleep. The company wants folks who have had their DNA analyzed by companies such as 23andMe to submit their info as a sort of crowdsourced sleep study. They want to figure out if there are any common genes that indicate how someone will sleep. If this happens, I expect plenty of concerns about user privacy.
It was hard for me to relax in the middle of a busy trade show as the Dreamlight hugged my head. And for a wearable, it felt pretty heavy. But it did an excellent job at muting the sound of the hundreds of people gathered at the CES event.
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CES 2018: CNET's complete coverage of tech's biggest show.