Elemind, a startup founded by MIT researchers, has developed an electroencephalogram (EEG) headband that emits acoustic stimulation aligned with people's brainwaves to help them fall asleep faster. Link to an article by Zach Winn in MIT News is here.
Elemind's team believes their device offers several advantages over sleeping pills that can cause side effects and addiction.
"We wanted to create a nonchemical option for people who wanted to get great sleep without side effects, so you could get all the benefits of natural sleep without the risks," says [co-founder Meredith] Perry, Elemind's CEO. "There's a number of people that we think would benefit from this device, whether you're a breastfeeding mom that might not want to take a sleep drug, somebody traveling across time zones that wants to fight jet lag, or someone that simply wants to improve your next-day performance and feel like you have more control over your sleep."
In a small study of adults with insomnia, 30 minutes of stimulation from the headband reduced the time to fall asleep by 10 to 15 minutes.
The headband detects your brainwaves and then calculates the optimal audio to evoke a sleep response.
The headband measures brainwaves through EEG and feeds the results into Elemind's proprietary algorithms, which are used to dynamically generate audio through a bone conduction driver. The moment the device detects that someone is asleep, the audio is slowly tapered out.
"We have a theory that the sound that we play triggers an auditory-evoked response in the brain," [Elemind co-founder David] Wang says. "That means we get your auditory cortex to basically release this voltage burst that sweeps across your brain and interferes with other regions. Some people who have worn Elemind call it a brain jammer. For folks that ruminate a lot before they go to sleep, their brains are actively running. This encourages their brain to quiet down."
Elemind began shipping the headbands to a limited group of users as part of a pilot program. And its founders are researching other uses for the acoustic stimulation headband beyond alleviating insomnia; for example, they are exploring its effectiveness in enhancing memory and slowing Alzheimer's progression.
Previously:
• Acoustic cloak from metamaterials
• Acoustic engineer explains why vuvuzelas are annoying
