iWakey

These robes and pajamas make me want to stay in bed or lounge on the couch all day. You might recognize them from everywhere from Friends to Fight Club (Brad Pitt loves the coffee cup robe). Check them out and let me know your favorite. http://www.sleepyheads.com/Bath_Robes/Canyon_Robes

I never thought that moving into a Southern facing apartment would be a problem. We have blinds– that should work, right? Nope! Not only does the light pollution come in full force at night so you never get the darkness that naturally brings sleep, but in the morning by 6am our room is alive with sunlight like I’ve never experienced before.  We ordered curtains this week and I am hoping that they are enough! In the midst of this, I learned a very important scientific fact. Even though you are wearing an eyemask to block out the light, it appears your body can feel the light and naturally wakes up.  So, if you want to sleep past dawn….or until noon, batten down those hatches and block the sun as much as you can!

This clock may not be the most attractive, but who can resist Stephen Fry aka Jeeves waking you with impertinence?

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See more at Voco’s website

Amazing work from Rachel Wingfield at Loop.ph brings an immersive wake-up system to your bedroom. Helping to combat SAD the bed covers simulate a sunrise around you helping to manage your melatonin production and make your bedroom look beautiful. I would love to see a collaboration with a fabric designer where they use the pattern of the lights in the design of the covers.

Find out more about Light Sleeper here

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Thanks ThingsAmongMany for the find

Reading before sleep is a great way to remove the pressures of the day, but a bed side lamp often doesn’t work if you turn to one side. And if you a lucky enough to be sleeping next to someone having the light on is not going to help them drift off into dreamland.

This page light is a great way to both help you see the story and focus the light just on your book. I would love to see if this works on a kindle so if anyone tries it out please let us know.

One thing I have learned since moving to NYC is that the amount of light in your bedroom greatly affects your sleep depth and even whether you are able to fall asleep at all. Being too lazy since we moved in to install curtains on top of our blinds, I have started using a sleep mask ala Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. This one by Blink is my favorite so far. The molded foam gives your eyes room, but blocks out the light. http://www.flight001.com/store/trip.htm?itemid=1741&view=all&sid=205 www.flight001.com has many other options too depending on your style and comfort needs.  I also find that the slight pressure of the mask triggers my body that its sleep time after a while…a little bit of pavlovian response that we can all benefit from!

I found this amazing website that streams images and sound that you can customize based on your calming/energizing needs.  Check it out when you need a little soothing or a kick in the butt to get you going! http://moodstream.gettyimages.com/

Night night from iSleepy and iWakey.

Review of the Chumby coming in the next few days…

So, easing into sleep time is hard for me. I find that aromatherapy really helps. It at least works as a trigger if you practice it every night. Lavender works best for me. I am addicted to two products at the moment that get me in the mood to sleep:

This ring goes on top of your lightbulb, you put a few drops of essential oil in the ring, it warms up and diffuses throughout your room. You can use camomile, lavender, neroli, rose, ylang ylang, or marjoram.

I also like this roll on. You roll it on your wrists and inhale the scents of lavender and camomile.

Let me know what you think, or if you have any sleep mood recommendations

I am really enjoying the concept of ’sometime’. Christiaan Postma has created the most intricate clock I have seen with 140 individual clocks set to different times, but when they come together they reveal each hour, then time disintegrates into the next hour. (via coolhunting)

Spiral Time

This concept aligns really well with iwakey’s thoughts on spiral time. Time which is only gains value as you get closer to the point of interest. Imagine organizing a night out…

[you]: Fancy going out tonight?
[Sam]: Sure, but I wont finish work until late tonight
[you]: ok text me when you know when you will be done
[Sam]: finishing earlier, I’ll be done at about 7ish
[you] ok I’ll head out about 6:30
[you] about 10 minutes away
[Sam] (7:14) Hey mate great to see you

Setting the exact time is no longer needed, just a tread of conversation to help you spiral in on the moment.

A wonderful deconstruction of time into units which allow us to live our lives outside the ever repetative tick tock. Created by Laurence Willmott who has some great other projects which are worth checking out.

Off to set my (evil) alarm clock to just before I absolutely have to.

Or should I say “goodnight”? I’m iSleepy, the one who is here for all of your sleepytime tips and tricks to get the most out of your pillow. More to come. Night night, iSleepy

Nor is falling in love, it was these two things which caused the idea behind iwakey to begin to come to life. I can’t wake up, and my wife can’t fall asleep.

Alarm clocks are invasive, annoying, ugly, and generally unfriendly objects of terror. But right there softly charging by your bed is your phone, your friend, your connection to the outside world, wouldn’t it be lovely if it could softly lull you to sleep at night and gently wake you like a warm sea breeze flowing through your window in the morning? Well even the hailed iPhone just made an alarm clock based on that evil little scream box breaking the morning silence with no thought or consideration for your precious beauty sleep.

This is where iwakey comes in, helping you have lovely dreams and waking you up with a smile on your face every single morning.

iwakey is being imagined and developed as you sleep and will come to life in the near future. The progress and concepts will be shared with you here to let you know there is a dream coming true just for you and your iPhone.

We can’t wait to say good morning to you soon…