From earbuds to rings, watches to smart mattresses, there’s no shortage of sleep tech intended to help you fall and stay asleep. Now, a new product coming to the market has an even bolder promise—helping you fall asleep faster. According to 76% of users in the brand’s clinical trials, Elemind’s “neurotechnology headband” does exactly that. The wearable technology brand promotes the product as the equivalent of turning your brain to “do not disturb.” But does it work?
The Elemind smart headband is the first of its kind, designed to help people fall asleep faster and back to sleep quickly if they wake up. It uses patented algorithms and artificial intelligence to read and respond to individual brain waves, triggering acoustic stimulation that, as the company puts it, “noise-[cancels] the brain waves keeping you awake.” It’s available for preorder right now for $349, with the product expected to start shipping to customers in late September. Note that the price doesn’t include membership fees. While Elemind is free the first year for beta users, it’s around $84 annually thereafter.
A Neurotechnology Headband Promising On-Demand Sleep
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A Smart Wearable That Actively Improves Sleep
Elemind began as a result of a think tank of researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Connecticut and University of Pennsylvania. Co-founders Dr. Ed Boyden, Dr. Nir Grossman, Dr. Heather Read and Dr. David Wang developed Elemind’s core technology and brought in Meredith Perry, Elemind’s current CEO, to help architect the vision for the company and the product.
The team focused on “developing a wearable tool that [could] optimize health in a targeted, personalized way without side effects,” says Perry. The Elemind headband uses EEG monitoring of brain waves to optimize the sleep experience, and Perry says it has helped more than three out of four users fall asleep more quickly.
“It’s like noise-canceling for the mind; it reads and responds to your individual brainwaves to help drive the brain from wakeful patterns to restful patterns, helping people fall asleep faster,” she says. Elemind is also drug-free and safe to use for any length of time. Plus, it can be combined with other sleep accessories, like sleep masks and earbuds.
Key Features Of Elemind
This smart headband works by monitoring and altering EEG brain signals, which are partially in charge of wakefulness, sleepiness and quality of sleep. The product claims to move you into a deeper, more restful state faster and more reliably than sleep hacks like a sleepy-girl mocktail or a melatonin gummy.
Materials And Feel
The Elemind is designed for comfort. It’s made of silicone, nylon and spandex, with five unobtrusive electrodes that measure EGG brain signals and respond to individual brainwaves. “Elemind is a comfy, squishy, compact neurotech headband that is designed to be comfortable in any sleeping position,” says Perry. “You can use it any way you like: to take a nap, to fall asleep, to fall back to sleep or you can simply use it to just relax.” The device’s acoustic signals are delivered through the electrodes situated on the forehead, and they’re only audible to the person wearing it. Once you fall asleep, the acoustic waves turn off.
Charging, Bandwidth And Accessories
As any smart device, you have to keep up with charging Elemind. It charges in two and a half hours and has a nine-plus hour session time with a 24-hour standby time. Session time is when the headband is on and working, which is when your eyes are closed and you’re falling sleep. When the headband reads that you’re asleep, the stimulation fades out (but the EEG continues to read your brain activity for your sleep report). The company notes the headband should be charged daily. It’s adjustable, but small, medium and large straps are also included to ensure a proper fit for different head sizes.
AI Sleep Tailor And Performance App
The product includes a “sleep tailor” system, which uses AI to learn from your sleep patterns, optimizing your ability to improve rest. It creates personalized sleep optimized stimulation patterns based on your congregated data, so don’t share this sleep product with your partner. In the Elemind app, users can track numerous analytics to see the full breakdown of what’s going on as you sleep, including metrics like the time it takes to fall asleep, how long you are in each sleep stage, and how much you move at night, among others.
The Brand’s Guarantee
The brand is up front with the fact that Elemind doesn’t work for everyone, so it offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Defects in materials and workmanship are covered with a one-year warranty from date of shipment.
According to Elemind, its technology isn’t effective for those who are hearing impaired because it uses audio signals to impact brain waves.
The Sleep Accessory Of The Future?
No sleep solution—whether it’s cooling pajamas, smart beds or circadian rhythm glasses—is one-size-fits-all, and there’s still quite a bit of doubt among consumers as the wearable sleep device industry wades into the future of EEG monitoring. Still, the Elemind neurotechnology headband is an outlier for its promise not to simply track sleep data, but to actively respond in real time for faster results. The company’s clinical trials are encouraging, and the 30-day money-back guarantee means there’s little risk. In the interest of your sleep health—a major indicator and factor in overall health—the Elemind could be something to take a chance on.
