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AI is active while you sleep

19.1.2024

Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

The bedroom as an electronics-free zone? Perhaps not for much longer – at least if companies that build technology into mattresses and pillows are anything to go by. They claim to improve your sleep using AI.

The technical revolution doesn’t stop at pillows and mattresses either. This was demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES for short, in Las Vegas at the beginning of the year. In Asia in particular, pillows are no longer just made of foam or down. Constructions with small motors are designed to ensure the correct sleeping position for your head – and, of course, smartphone apps record everything from your number of breaths per minute to deep sleep phases and noise levels.

Various manufacturers have chosen snoring as the main enemy of restful sleep, including 10minds. And, of course, they chose the fight against snoring as a compelling sales argument. After all, rhonchopathy, the medical term for sleep apnoea, is widespread in bedrooms. Even if snorers themselves are often unaware of this.

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If less stress during the day or relaxation exercises before going to bed don’t help, technology should help you sleep better. 10minds developed the Motion Pillow for this purpose and launched it in 2021. The South Koreans won an innovation award at CES in their first year and again in 2022 and 2023. 2024 was no different, they snagged the Best Innovation Award. The prize was awarded for combining motion cushion technology with an AI system. It monitors the sleeper’s movements and sounds, including snoring.

Manufacturer 10minds won an award at CES for its Motion Pillow.
Source: 10minds

AI recognises the risk of snoring

Artificial intelligence uses the data to create patterns, for example, to deduce when a person begins to snore. As a preventative measure, small airbags in the pillow inflate in such a way that the head repositions itself – thereby eliminating snoring and restless sleep. A study by an American sleep researcher has shown that a lateral rotation of the head by 30 degrees helps to prevent snoring by opening up airways.

To do this, the company invented a special type of noise cancelling so that Motion Pillow users don’t wake up to the noise of inflating airbags.

Nitetronic also offer «intelligent» cushions. The company was founded in Hamburg in 2012. It now belongs to US company Aiworks Global, under whose umbrella you can find all kinds of other smart health products – from an office chair with lumbar heating to a mattress that massages you when you lie on it.

The Z6 anti-snoring pillow from Nitetronic works in a similar way to its South Korean competitors. Different layers and six independent air cushion zones are designed to gently reposition the head when snoring starts. The Z6 is also said to be very quiet, with the manufacturer specifying 28 decibels. This is somewhere between the emission produced by breathing and a very quiet whisper.

How the Nitetronic Z6 works: air chambers are inflated or air is released to move the head.

Clever cushions have their price

In our store, you can easily spend 300 francs or more for a very good classic pillow. The supposed technological wonders are significantly more. Nitetronic charges over 600 euros for its Z6 in its own store. The Motion Pillow is priced at 700 US dollars. This doesn’t just include a cushion, but also a control unit connected by a hose cable. It sits on your bedside table or next to the bed, records sounds, connects to the Wi-Fi and provides the air pressure for inflating the chambers built into the pillows.

DeRucci’s smart mattress: who doesn’t like sleeping on the beach? But the technology underneath the fabric is even more spectacular.
Source: DeRucci

The schematic structure of DeRucci’s mattress; the airbags can also be seen.
Source: DeRucci

But things can be even more expensive. For example, Chinese company DeRucci – don’t let the Italian name confuse you – presented a mattress for over 8,000 US dollars in Las Vegas. The T11 Pro Smart Mattress contains 23 AI sensors. They control 18 small airbags integrated into the mattress in real time. This should provide you with optimum support in every sleeping position. There are also ways to keep warm. Infrared heating tubes are built into the high-tech sleeping pad.

We don’t yet have the latest high-tech bedroom wonders in our store. Interested in these products? Which technology do you find exciting? Let me and the Community know in the comments.

Header image: Nitetronic

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Martin Jungfer

Head of Content

Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.

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