You may or may not be into technology, but there are some things that just make our lives better. Hello, Dishwashers!

 

Now, we’re not saying smart alarms fall on the same level as the dishwasher or, say, Netflix… but as a luxury sheets company, anything we find that can improve sleep quality is primo in our book.

 

So, what are smart alarms?

 

Well, simply put, smart alarms wake you up at the exact right time so that you feel rested and recharged, not exhausted and under-slept.

 

So why is it that sometimes you do feel tired in the morning and other times you don’t?

 

For the answer, you really need to understand sleep cycles.

 

Sleep cycles are just one portion of your circadian rhythm, also known as the sleep/wake cycle. In a previous post, we talked about blue light and how it can have a negative effect on your sleep patterns. 

 

Now we will go further into how those sleep patterns work and how you can help to aid them in improving your sleep quality. 

 

If you take a look at the image below, you will notice that the body sleeps in stages, from wakefulness all the way down to deep sleep state. Throughout the night, your body will vary from one stage to another, as you can see from the pattern below.

 

 

It is when you are in deep sleep and your alarm rips you awake that you arise feeling like you didn’t sleep at all. But what if you could be awakened at the top of your sleep cycle?

 

Why, yes, that’s exactly what a smart alarm can do.

 

What a smart alarm does is to identify, through sound-detected body motions or motionlessness, whether you are in a deep sleep or closer to an awake state.

 

This smart alarm is set to wake you within a 30-minute timeframe and will detect when you are at the top of your cycle and then gently wake you with a gradually increasing alarm chime.

Not only will Sleep Cycle do this, but it will also record your sleep patterns and score your sleep quality, it will also allow you to record your wake up mood, time in bed, time asleep, whether you snored and for how long (along with a sound clip for playback!) and how long it took you to fall asleep.

 

Finally, it will allow you to add Sleep Notes to indicate factors that might affect your sleep, such as eating late, drinking coffee or alcohol or taking sleep supplements. 

 

You will be able to see which habits might increase or decrease your sleep quality and adjust these habits accordingly to develop an optimal sleep routine at night.

 

 

We have been using this for a couple of years now to great personal result and it is one of our favorite sleep tips we love sharing with others.

 

To try this out for yourself, you can download this free sleep app, Sleep Cycle. It is the one we ourselves use nightly.

 

Then, just follow the directions given by the app, snuggle into your CGK sheets and let Sleep Cycle do its magic!