The SleepLoop Wearable Clicks While You Rest, to Subconsciously Boost Your Deep Sleep
A recently-completed clinical trial suggests the odd mask-like brain monitor could enhance "slow waves" for most users.
A team from ETH Zurich and University Hospital Zurich have built a wearable, dubbed SleepLoop, which aims to improve sleep quality — through auditory brain stimulation, applied directly to the subconscious.
"This is a medical device, not just a wellness consumer product you can order online when you have trouble sleeping," says Walter Karlen, co-developer of the SleepLoop technology, of the unusual-looking headband and facial mask system. "Use of the device must be medically indicated and supervised by a doctor."
Designed to be worn during sleep, the SleepLoop fits onto the subject and measures brain activity. When "slow waves" are detected, indicating the subject has entered the deep sleep phase, a clicking sound is triggered — audible should the user be awake, but picked up purely subconsciously during deep sleep.
It's this clicking sound that, SleepLoop's creators claim, enhances sleep, by synchronizing neuronal cells in the brain. Testing on participants between 60 and 80 years old, who were required to use the device in-home without expert assistance, seems to bear the claim out: "Most" of the 16 reported participants showed enhanced slow waves during deep sleep while the wearable was active, but not all.
"Some people generally responded well to the stimuli and clearly showed enhanced slow waves," explains Caroline Lustenberger, project lead, "while others showed no response, regardless of their daily well-being."
The results of the sleep simulation study have been published in the journal Communications Medicine under open-access terms, while the technology's creators have pledged to continue with further development.
