Having trouble getting enough sleep? Sound can be soothing and help with sleep, but most white noise units employed for that purpose claim a presence of their own because you can localize the sound. That may not sound like a major distinction, but if you’ve ever slept with a white noise “box,” you become quite aware of its location, especially if the volume is turned up to mask busy household or street noise.
Acoustic and audio engineers at Cambridge Sound Management took note of this issue, and developed Nightingale, a smart sleep system that blankets a room with sound, creating a uniform sound field that won’t allow your brain to localize the sound source. The Nightingale system is available for pre-order as of Wednesday.
Nightingale consists of two passthrough AC power wall units. You can put them behind furniture or other locations in a bedroom, hotel room, child’s room — any room — as long as both units are in the same room. Each unit also includes multicolor LED nightlights. You control the light color and other Nightingale settings via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi from an associated smartphone or desktop app.
Nightingale works with other smart home-connected devices including Nest, Hue, and Google Home, and also can be controlled with an Amazon Echo Alexa voice assistant skill. The Nightingale system can be configured for room type and acoustics and will suggest a sound blanket acoustic choice based on personal sleep conditions such as snoring and tinnitus.
According to Cambridge Sound Management CEO Christopher Calisi, “Studies show that more than one in four Americans don’t get enough sleep – something that’s associated with a number of chronic diseases and conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and depression. Our goal with Nightingale is to ensure people everywhere get the sleep they need to live a happy, productive life.”
After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Nightingale is now available for pre-order for $249. Kickstarter orders will ship in January, and pre-orders are scheduled to start shipping in February.
