Get a Great Night’s Sleep in Your Smart Bedroom

By Harry Guinness

A good night’s sleep is super important: It keeps you healthier, mentally sharper and better able to face the day. When building your smart home, a smart bedroom should be high on the list. The right smart bedroom devices can improve the quality of your sleep—and, in turn, the quality of your life.

What to expect from smart bedroom devices

When it comes to essential smart bedroom devices, you can find great features, such as:

• Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections, so you can control them remotely with your phone
• Smart scheduling and automation features, so you can program them to do certain things at certain times
• Integration with other smart home devices, so you can do things like use voice controls in your kitchen to prepare your bedroom for sleep

Unfortunately, not all smart devices work together yet. There are platforms that are more universally supported—like Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant—so keep compatibility in mind when you’re setting up your smart bedroom.

What kind of smart bedroom devices can you get?

Dozens of smart bedroom devices are out there, from smart essentials like alarm clocks and lamps, to self-cooling beds and self-closing blinds. Here are some favorites you can use to smarten up any bedroom.

Smart speakers

A voice-controlled smart speaker—like an Amazon Echo or Google Home—is a crucial element of most smart rooms, and a smart bedroom is no exception.

With a smart speaker, you’re able to control a lot of other smart devices with your voice, so you can turn your lights off without reaching a finger out from under the covers, or tell your blinds to open up. You can also use smart speakers to set alarms, listen to the radio or check the weather before getting dressed.

This is one of the first devices you should add to any smart sleep setup.

Smart sunrise alarm clocks

A smart speaker can work as an alarm, but if you want a dedicated smart alarm clock, there are some pretty cool options.

Most smart alarms, like the Philips SmartSleep and the Hatch Restore, for example, include extra features like sunrise lights to wake you up more gently, ambient relaxing sounds to help you drift off and even guided meditations. Their alarm sounds are also much more pleasant than the default beep beep beep of an Amazon Echo.

Smart lights

Smart lights are a favorite addition to any room but, like smart speakers, they’re especially good in the bedroom. You can use smart controls, smart lightbulbs and smart lamps, such as the Philips Hue line, to do things like:

• Have a wind-down routine that automatically dims your lights as you read in bed
• Have your lights come on at sunrise to gently wake you up, just like a sunrise alarm clock
• Turn your lights on and off from bed with your smart speaker
• Set up motion-controlled, dimmed under-the-bed lighting, which comes on automatically if you get up in the middle of the night

Smart blinds

There’s nothing like waking up to the sun streaming through your open window—as long as you’re ready to get up. If you want to stay in bed and sleep, it’s the worst.

Smart blinds, like the Ikea Fyrtur, give you the best of all possible worlds. They’re motorized, so you can automate them and also control them directly with voice commands or an app. This means you can set them to go down at sunset and come up at sunrise—or just lower and raise them with your voice when you see fit.

Note: If you already have blinds, kits are available to turn your regular shades into smart shades.

Smart beds and mattresses

Smart beds and mattresses come in a couple different forms.

Some, like the Eight Sleep Pod, have built-in temperature regulation, to let you cool your bed down in the summer or warm it up in the winter, so you sleep extra comfortably. Others, like the ReST Smart Bed and the Sleep Number 360 series, give you an app to control how soft or firm the different sections of the mattress are. Most smart beds and mattresses also track your sleep, so you can see when you are—and aren’t—getting a good night of Zs.

Smart pillows

If a smart mattress seems like a bit of an ask, you can actually get some of the same features in a slightly smaller form: a smart pillow.

For example, the Moona is an active cooling pillow pad, so you never have to turn your pillow to the cold side again. It also tracks your sleep, as does the iSense Classic.

Smart plugs

Not every device in your bedroom will come with a full range of smart features. If you have something like a humidifier or fan you want to turn on and off using your Alexa, or schedule to come on at certain times, you can use a smart plug or even install smart wall outlets. They’re a great way to upgrade your older gear.

How to set up your smart bedroom for better sleep

Smart speakers, lights, alarm clocks and blinds are the most affordable, and useful, devices to create a smart bedroom.

Most of these smart devices have settings that let you configure night modes, do not disturb and otherwise turn off sounds and lights so they won’t annoy you. (If not, you can always tape over any lights!)

A smart bedroom can help you sleep—and wake up—more comfortably. Of course, be sure to follow other suggestions like avoiding coffee late in the day, not staring at screens too late in the evening and going to be bed on a regular schedule.

Product features may have changed and are subject to change.