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14 Best Sleep Gadgets and Apps (2023): Noise Machines, Blankets, Lights, and More

Posted on June 10, 2023

14 Best Sleep Gadgets and Apps (2023): Noise Machines, Blankets, Lights, and More

  • Photograph: Hatch

    Rise and Shine

    Hatch Restore 2

    Waking up to a jarring alarm propels you out of bed with a cortisol jolt, but it is a stressful way to start the day. The best sunrise alarm clocks wake you more gently, emulating the sun by emitting light that gradually brightens your room. The Hatch Restore 2 also offers a wind-down routine with a sunset, soothing music, and sleep sounds. Sticking to a routine has proved the most effective way to combat my insomnia. Our customized schedule gives us half an hour of reading light, a 20-minute sunset with soothing music, and rain sounds through the night. We also set a sunrise alarm with tweeting birds. It helps us get to sleep and is a pleasant way to wake up.

    This second version replaces the original in our guide, featuring a more stylish fabric finish with improved controls that include large physical buttons on top. The depth of customization options is excellent, and there’s a wide choice of sounds, sleep stories, and meditations. However, only the basic library of white noise and soothing sounds is free; the rest of the content comes via a subscription costing $5 per month or $50 per year after a one-month trial. If you can stomach the cost, the Hatch Restore 2 bundles several handy features into a single bedside device.

    ★ Alternative: The second-generation Google Nest Hub (7/10, WIRED Recommends) can perform many of the same tricks as the Hatch, with the option to play sleep sounds, music, or podcasts, a sunrise alarm, and built-in sleep tracking. But it also serves as a great digital photo frame, smart-home control panel, and display for video.

    $200 at Hatch

  • Photograph: Philips

    Bedside Light

    Philips Hue Go Portable Table Lamp

    Whether you like to wind down by reading in bed or you have to get up during the night, a good bedside lamp is essential. The svelte Philips Hue Go Portable Table Lamp has several clever features that make it ideal for the nightstand. It comes with a circular wireless charging stand and can be detached and carried around. It offers up to 48 hours of light, and a full charge takes around four hours. You can set the brightness, color, and warmth or choose a scene in the Hue app (it can emulate flickering candlelight, for example). You can also schedule it to fade on or off. It’s great for bedtime reading or winding down, as you can set a warm, low-level light. A subtle, portable light is also ideal if you need to get up and don’t want to wake your partner.

    Compact and robust, the Philips Hue Go Portable Table Lamp has an IP54 rating, so you can even take it outside. Press the physical button on top to cycle through colors and dynamic scenes or long-press to turn it off. With a classic lamp silhouette and a diffuser on the bottom, it blends in anywhere and never dazzles you. The only drawback, aside from the high price, is the lack of a battery level indicator. You can find alternatives in our Best Night-Lights guide.

    $160 at Amazon

  • Photograph: Calm

    Sleep Stories

    Calm

    Perhaps best known as an anti-anxiety app, Calm offers meditations for different situations. But it also boasts a wealth of sleep stories, music, and soundscapes to help you sleep. Dull, meandering tales that don’t go anywhere can be an effective way to cut off your thoughts and help you let go of worries at night. We love the train journeys narrated by Erik Braa and the rain sounds, but there’s a constantly growing library from which to choose. Stories and meditations can also be played on your phone or streamed to headphones and speakers.

    While there is some free content in Calm, the good stuff requires a subscription. You can get a seven-day free trial of the Premium service, which jumps to $15 per month or $70 for the year. We recommend keeping an eye out for discount offers (they come along frequently).

    $70 at Calm

  • Photograph: Sleepme

    Stay Cool

    Sleepme Dock Pro

    Temperature impacts our ability to fall asleep and stay asleep, as well as overall sleep quality. When it’s too warm or too cold, we struggle to sleep, and a rising temperature can wake us. Your room should be somewhere between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit (15 to 21 Celsius). But your body temperature will fluctuate depending on your health, bedclothes, linen, and even what you last ate. (Late-night nachos always seem like a good idea, but …) The Dock Pro from Sleepme combines a Chilisleep pad for your bed with a water-pumping unit that can maintain a fixed temperature (55 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit). You can customize the temperature and schedule changes through the night to encourage deep sleep and REM phases.

    The Dock Pro is very effective at heating or cooling your bed to the temperature you want, and it’s lovely climbing into a warm or cool bed, depending on the time of year, but you pay a lot for the privilege. Unfortunately, the pad isn’t very comfortable, and the pumping unit makes a continuous sound. (I measured 46 decibels on my Apple Watch.) It was mostly masked by the rain sounds we listen to at night, but it could disturb some people. I'm a hot sleeper, and the Dock Pro helps me banish night sweats. It really came into its own during a heat wave last summer, enabling us to keep cool without AC. Sleepme also offers subscription sleep tracking called Sleepme+ for insights and automatic temperature adjustments, but it's expensive ($20 per month), and we haven't tested it.

    $1,149 at Sleepme

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