New Wearable Devices Target the Brain to Bring Better Sleep

They promise to speed up the onset of slumber, improve its quality and even transition travelers to a different time zone before they land at their destination. [The phrase highlights the ability of certain methods or products to help travelers pre-adjust their sleep patterns and bodily functions to match their destination's time zone before they arrive. This proactive approach aims to make the transition smoother, so they can immediately engage in activities without the usual lag associated with time zone changes.]

By Jo Craven McGinty. Oct. 24, 2024.

The clock is ticking. You should have been asleep long ago. But instead, you’re lying in bed wide awake, wondering if you’ll ever doze off.

New gadgets that target the brain promise to speed up the onset of sleep, improve the length and quality of rest, and even transition travelers to a different time zone before their planes touch down.

This isn’t as far out as it sounds.

For the last decade, neuroscientists have studied the modulation of brain waves in patients with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease or other neurological or mental-health conditions to improve sleep, memory and cognition.

“The scientific community believes that brain stimulation can indeed modulate the sleeping brain,” said Roneil Gopal Malkani, an associate professor of neurology specializing in sleep at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and the Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Chicago. But Malkani cautions that using sound as a medical treatment is still being researched.

In one sleep study aimed at improving memory, Malkani gives patients pairs of associated words, such as “car” and “engine.” Those who receive targeted bursts of sound delivered through headphones during the deepest phase of sleep have better memory the next day when they are given one word and asked to recall the second.

The timing of the stimulation is guided by electroencephalogram, or EEG, a painless recording of the brain’s electrical activity using sensors attached to the scalp. While you’re awake, brain waves cycle at a speed of 8 to 12 hertz, but during the deepest phase of sleep, known as slow wave sleep, the cycle slows to 0.5 to 2 hertz—as few as one oscillation every two seconds.

Now, companies are leveraging this type of research to create wearable products they say will improve sleep in healthy individuals. More than 30% of adults in the U.S. report sleep disturbances, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and by one estimate, 60% of that number—roughly 46 million people—say they have trouble nodding off.

The devices, often packaged as a headband with a companion app, promise to help people fall asleep faster by encouraging waking brain waves to slow down sooner.

Elemind, one of the latest wearables on the market, houses five EEG sensors that read a user’s brain waves and a tiny speaker that delivers targeted bursts of sound at specific points in the oscillations.

“The idea is that if we can disrupt the brain waves associated with wakefulness, then someone will fall asleep faster,” said Meredith Perry, chief executive and co-founder of Elemind.

The headband delivers around 15,000 auditory pulses in 30 minutes at bedtime, or approximately 10 a second. The staccato beat is reminiscent of a sprinkler spritzing a lawn. To make the experience more pleasant, the sound of rainfall plays in the background. Both sounds are intended to be inaudible to a sleeping partner.

StimScience, another company, uses electrical stimulation to encourage better sleep. Its Somnee headband is worn for 15 minutes at bedtime and delivers an alternating electrical current that feels like a warm, tingling sensation, said Ram Gurumoorthy, StimScience’s co-founder and chief technology officer. The unit takes brain-wave readings with three EEG sensors at the beginning and end of the session. It takes up to three weeks to tailor the sessions to an indi