The Sleep Gadgets That Might Just Help You Get Your 8 Hours Tonight

Humans, the intelligent beings that we are, have somehow managed to evolve our brains to a place where just a fraction of our species is capable of sleeping well. It's as if every single one of us hit the age of 12, and then bam, every single one of us was destined to never feel rested again, whether due to inner turmoil or outside distractions or both. Bags drag down our under-eyes, caffeine becomes our drug of choice, and anxiety mounts, keeping us awake late at night as we become steadily more anxious about still being awake this late at night. It's a crushing cycle, and I'm fairly certain the only fix is to add three hours of unencumbered nap time to every day, bringing our daily hour total to 27.

But that is, unfortunately, impossible. Still, we humans are obsessed with trying to hack sleep like we hack diets and exercise. Scientific literature abounds. Wellness trends like micro-napping and melatonin-boosting and CBD-dosing are tried, and most often abandoned. As such, there is a burgeoning gadget market built around the industrial sleep complex. Some of it, in our experience, is worth testing out—you'll find those gadgets below—though of course, none is guaranteed to work for everyone. As humans we may share sleeplessness, but the ways in which each of us is sleepless are highly idiosyncratic. Try one, or a combination of a few, with some calming breaths and a glass of warm milk. Whatever works.