It’s New Year’s Day, the universal day of hangovers. Whether they overindulged on the champagne or mixed it up with beer, wine, and liquor, lots of people are feeling less than perky this morning. There are many ways to prevent the pounding headache and nausea, but now it’s too late for sipping responsibly and other such tactics. Even if you’re feeling awful, there might be a couple ways to ease the effects of last night’s partying.
The last couple of years have seen an explosion of smart home devices designed to make life easier. Although some of them are still in the design stage, we can’t help but picture a future where our robot assistant will bring us a couple aspirin and some Sprite (apparently a decent remedy, according to science). Until then, here are a few ways to ease your hangover that you might find around your smart home.
Kohler Purefresh Toilet Seat ($70+)
Kohler’s odor-neutralizing toilet seat isn’t exactly smart, but it is battery-operated. It has a replaceable carbon filter to help cover up the stench after you turned your bathroom into a vomitorium. It also has a glowing LED, so you don’t need to flip on the overhead light, which may very well exacerbate how you’re feeling.
August Smart Lock ($200+)
Perhaps you have an extra-kind friend — or a trusted pizza-delivery person — who’s bringing you some greasy food. But to let them in, you’d have to get up. A smart lock lets you grant a temporary code to someone who has the app or, in some cases, remotely unlock the door. That way, hangover brunch in bed can come via delivery.
Lutron Serena Shades ($400+)
A very pricey addition to any smart home, smart shades can open and close on command — with you barely lifting a finger. Lutron’s Serena shades, for example, are HomeKit-enabled, so you can ask Siri to shut the blinds, for Pete’s sake, and return to your fortress of darkness.
Smarter FridgeCam (TBD)
Still in the pre-order phase, the FridgeCam makes any refrigerator a little smarter. Forgot whether you stocked up on PediaLyte? The camera takes a photo of your appliance’s contents whenever the door opens. Necessary? No, but neither was that last tequila shot you did last night.
Amazon’s Alexa ($50+)
When it comes to smart-home control, Amazon’s Alexa has the Google Home beat at the moment. If no one’s coming to bring you food, you can ask Alexa to turn on your smart GE oven, giving you a precious extra few minutes to lie horizontal before you have to pop in your pizza rolls. Alexa also works with a bunch of smart light bulbs, so you can ask her to dim them to 10 percent, or whatever level your bloodshot eyes can handle.
Behmor Connected Coffee Maker ($249)
Coffee doesn’t cure a hangover, but it can help you transition from the walking dead to a more fully functioning member of society. If you planned ahead the night before and added grounds and water to your machine, then you could use Behmor’s app to get some coffee brewing from bed. Of course, if you really planned ahead, you could get the same results if you set up any preloaded coffee on your nightstand.
Nuheat Programmable Thermostat ($196+)
This thermostat is made just for electric floor heaters, so it’s going to cost a lot more than $200 to get it working. But still. Just imagine being able to heat your floors from your smartphone, instead of lying on chilly tile, swearing off all future New Year’s Eve celebrations.
