You’ve likely heard the promises before: Fall asleep faster, relax deeper, wake up easier. But chances are the products that made those claims never looked like this. Earable Neuroscience—co-founded by a University of Colorado Boulder computer science professor and Children’s Hospital Colorado doctor—spent almost a decade figuring out how to deliver a sleep clinic to your bedroom. The result is Frenz Brainband, a mind-reading headband that, let’s be honest, looks like a futuristic version of the headgear you had to wear to bed every night as a teenager. Debuting this month at CES (an annual consumer electronics trade show, which has already honored the product with an innovation award), Frenz features sensors for your forehead and a superconductor above your ears that, together, monitor brainwaves, heart rate, breathing, oxygen levels, eye movements, and facial micromovements to get an idea of your cognitive function. It then reacts to signs of sleep distress by playing curated audio content, such as rain sounds, white noise, or guided meditations, through a bone conduction speaker that transmits to your ears only. Looks aside, the fact that Frenz operates on its own initiative to treat your sleep troubles is what differentiates it from other sleep wearables, says Kimi Doan, chief growth officer at Earable. Well, that and its results: During a company-conducted test of more than 1,000 “tricky sleepers,” 86 percent of participants fell asleep faster using Frenz, while people spent 19 fewer minutes, on average, tossing and turning. Earable believes fitful snoozers will gladly pay Frenz’s $599 price tag to experience similarly serene slumber.

Frenz Brainband. Photo courtesy of Earable Neuroscience

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