Sleep is an essential body function. A team of bio-engineers from the University of Texas, US have developed a mattress and pillow system that regulates the human body temperature to help in falling asleep faster. Our bodies are designed according to the 24-hour rhythm and lower temperatures at night facilitate us to fall asleep. This new technology regulates the temperature of the mattress and helps in falling asleep faster.
The mattress has an intelligent design which cools the body in its central region while warming the neck, hands and feet simultaneously. All this helps in regulating the blood flow in the human body, inducing drowsiness and eventually causing the person to sleep faster. This work was noted in the Journal of Sleep research. The scientists achieved this phenomenon using two ways: water and air to control body temperature.
The experiment was carried out on 11 people wherein, they were asked to go to bed 2 hrs earlier than usual. The mattress and heat dissipating pillow induced sleep faster than normal by regulating the internal body temperatures of the subjects. The results were evident: they slept 58% faster than the routine and had a sound sleep as well. Hence, thermal regulation proved to be an essential factor in simulating sleep cycles in humans.
The patent for this innovation has been registered already and the researchers are looking for collaborating with mattress companies to commercialise their product.
