I don't always sleep that well at night. Even with the occasional 9-10 hours of sleep, I still feel tired and fatigued. Then I remember I dreamed crazy dreams all night and I end up hoping Buddy will take a midday nap so I can too. Those days are no fun! That's why I was excited to try the NightWave Sleep Assistant and Lark Alarm Clock and Sleep Sensor to see if they would help me at all (and my Hubby too).
The NightWave Sleep Assistant is a small little device you place next to your bed. Before you try to drift off to sleep, the NightWave will flash a blue light onto the ceiling for 7 minutes. The goal of the NightWave is to help you control your breathing to match the light, and help you relax to fall asleep naturally. This relaxation routine is silent and noninvasive, and for some, should get you ready for sleep relatively easy.
While this is a nice concept, I found that this didn't work for us at all. Granted, we don't have a terrible time actually falling asleep, but this device seemed a bit hypnotic, mesmerizing and just plain annoying (and a bit silly too). I also found that I could slightly see the light through my eyelids on the subsequent nights I wanted to skip the NightWave but my Hubby wanted to use it. I had to shield my eyes! Although this is easy to use and noninvasive, overall this isn't a product my Hubby and I would ultimately recommend as a sleep aid. Instead, try breathing techniques and a warm cup of tea (that's specifically for night time) and achieve the similar results for a lot less money.
The Lark Silent Un-Alarm and Sleep Sensor Alarm Clock is essentially an alarm clock but with some other cool features to connect with your iPhone. The Lark comes with an adjustable wristband and a charging dock (which you can also plug your iPhone into as well - super convenient). The wristband serves as your vibrating alarm clock, as well as a sleep sensor and tracker so you can find out if you're waking at night without knowing (definitely happening for me - loved this feature!). For someone who isn't feeling rested after a full night's sleep (like me!), the Lark is a great tool to help discover what's going on through the sleep data on your iPhone. The Lark wristband is an alarm clock by vibrating in the morning to gently wake you. While I enjoy this feature when my husband used the Lark as opposed to a classic alarm that always woke me up, it has woken me up a few times also (I think I'm a light sleeper!). The vibration is quiet, though louder than I would have expected. With that said, if your husband is wearing it and you sleep in a bear hug all night long, this will definitely wake you up too. However, the vibration is probably as close to naturally waking up on your own as you can get. It even has a snooze function to let you briefly sleep in. And if for some reason you don't wake up, there is a composer-created audio backup just in case. Although we never needed the audio with using the Lark (I think my Hubby's internal alarm clock gets him up anyway), this is probably a valuable feature for many, especially after a late night with an early wake up in the morning.
One thing we quickly learned is that if you forget to charge the sensor device that goes in the wristband, it takes more than a few hours to charge for the next night. We found that the "ready" light was still red after about an hour of charging and still wasn't ready another two hours later. We didn't risk it and see if the sensor would last through the night but we felt this is a long time to charge. Surely we aren't the only ones that would forget to charge it first thing in the morning! Not to mention the undoing of the velcro wristband. When my Hubby wore the Lark, if I wasn't up when he climbed out of bed, I always woke up from him taking off the wristband. Maybe snaps would be better? Overall, we are enjoying the Lark.
Price: NightWave - $49.99, Lark - $99.99
Buy It: Check out the BestBuy.com for more fantastic products for your kitchen and home!
Disclosure: I received the above mentioned products from Best Buy for free, to facilitate this review. No other compensation was received. This is my completely honest opinion above and may be different from yours. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.
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