Help me, Guru! I’m having huge problems sleeping

AGREG CASSIDY, HOVE

Since the medical community remains steadfast in its refusal to certify Guru’s patent-pending Kabonginator for clinical use, let’s talk about lesser inventions that aren’t ‘highly illegal’ and which won’t ‘potentially lead to a broken skull’.

Premier amongst these is the recently released Dreem 2. It is equal parts cumbersome and expensive, being a rather conspicuous headband that costs a newly reduced £300, so you’ve really got to be into the whole sleep hacking vertical to pick one up. But if that’s you? Don’t, er, sleep on it.

The Dreem 2 tracks your respiration and heart rate through the night. So far, so pedestrian, but GaGu knows of no other sleepthing that can match its combination of sensors and trackers. It has a four-sensor EEG, pulse oxymeter and accelerometer for collecting that critical data. It’s smart enough that its data can apparently match up to that generated by dedicated sleep clinics. It will soon be able to detect breathing irregularities, too.

It also does bone conduction audio, though the manufacturer does go to great pains to sell the fact that there is no Bluetooth and Wi-Fi here; an odd boast usually, but in a device one might want to strap to their head each night that might tick some paranoid boxes.

But you don’t have to go head-mounted for good sleep tracking – there are pulse oxymeter devices out there that go on your thumb, can detect the signs of sleep apnea or extreme snoring and give you a little vibration alert to help train your body to shift itself. There are also other head bands, like the more cumbersome Muse S (itself £300) though that one in particular is more focused on pre-sleep meditation. Get that bit right, though, and you might find sleep itself is far easier to achieve.