Silent Technology
The best sleep ends with a peaceful morning. Unfortunately loud alarms don’t do a good job of that.
Research and studies have found that loud alarms aren’t healthy, triggering involuntary physical reactions in order to jolt you awake- such as an adrenaline rush, heart rate increase, and a spike in blood pressure.
While we can recover from this phase, we feel tired, drowsy, or disoriented which can impact our mood for the rest of the day (sleep inertia is a big problem).
Most of the technology we use today uses our “distance senses” of sight and sound to communication information to our brains- whether you’re watching a video on your phone or notified by your microwave that your popcorn is done.
Vibrotactile Haptic Feedback is, simply put, a new advancement in communication through one of our most important senses- which is touch.
By vibrating at a specific range between 1- to 15 Hz, these sensations are converted into an electrical signal which makes its way through your nervous system to the part of your brain that processes basic touch sensation- which also governs your sleep cues. This part of your brain- your thalamus- allows for a gradual, subconscious stimulation of the part of your brain that wakes you up in the morning, resulting in a gradual transition into a peaceful morning.
The main feature is that they avoid using stressors like loud noises, but are still able to wake you up in the morning. You can wake up more naturally as silent alarms wake you up slowly, as opposed to jolting you out of your sleep cycle.
Silent alarms are also not as disruptive to your sleep environment as loud alarms. Your mood will also benefit from waking up without physical reactions to stress, allowing you to have a more positive start to your day.
A specific benefit from our design is that it is the most optimal mechanism for waking up, with a decreased risk of falling back asleep after initially waking up. When compared to traditional auditory mechanisms, like an alarm clock or cell phone alarm, there is a significantly reduced stress response to waking up without sound. VibeRise wakes you and only you- simply set your wakeup time on the VIbeRise app, wear your device and find yourself transitioning into alert, calm wakefulness.
