Bedding that rouses you with light

It's long been known that daylight impacts our body's natural sleep cycles, which can easily get jumbled when we travel or keep odd hours. Loop.pH, a two-person design and research studio out of London, is working to create illuminated bedding that helps keep circadian rhythms in check and thus ensure more natural sleep patterns.

Get ready to toss the grating alarm clock; this duvet cover and pillow gently wake you with gradually brightening light that mimics a natural dawn.

Credit: Loop.pH

The LightSleeper pillow

LightSleeper bedding, which is not yet commercially available, features electroluminescent panels that act as light reflectors. The bedding, in particular, aims to treat sufferers of seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, for whom insufficient levels of daylight cause hormonal imbalances leading to medical conditions like depression or migraines. Most scientists recognize that SAD and other sleep/mood disorders are linked to a shift in the suprachaismatic nucleus or circadian rhythm, often referred to as the "body clock."

LightBedding creators Rachel Wingfield with Mathias Gmachl are onto some pretty other fascinating projects as well. Among them: DigitalDawn, a reactive window blind that digitally emulates the process of photosynthesis using printed electroluminescent technology.