We have been through days when we wake up groggy and as they say, on the wrong side of the bed. And from there on, the day just doesn’t seem right. You suffer from a general lack of focus, irritability, feelings of high stress, and the constant need of wanting to go to sleep. Doesn’t it make you think of waking up as the hardest thing you’ve got to do every single day? We dismiss the whole idea and continue the same old routine of being woken up by a traditional alarm clock, most probably on our phones, that we keep right next to us. Not only is this an unhealthy practice for our mental state of being and waking up, but can also put us at a higher risk of suffering from sleep inertia. 

Sleep Inertia and the traditional ‘alarm clock’ 

Sleep inertia is often described as the ‘heavy’ feeling that we often experience right after we wake up. Prolonged sleep inertia can often leave you feeling groggy the whole day, leading to hampering the quality of sleep and eventually,  life. 

Valley Sleep Centre opines “the majority of people who use a regular alarm clock often experience trouble waking up in the morning. Sleep Inertia often appears as the feeling of incomplete awakening and grogginess that reduces your ability to perform even simple tasks. Part of your body is actually still in a sleep state”

The Healthline observes that “That heavy feeling right after you wake up is called sleep inertia. You feel tired, maybe a little disoriented, and not quite fully ready to hit the ground running. It can affect anyone. Sleep inertia usually doesn’t last that long, but some people experience a version that lasts longer, known as prolonged sleep inertia” 

The National Centre For Biotechnology (NCBI) states that  “sleep inertia refers to the transitional state between sleep and wake, marked by impaired performance, reduced vigilance, and a desire to return to sleep” 

It is inferred that sleep inertia is caused due to the sudden awakening during the REM stage of sleep. It is of utmost importance to waking up at the most optimal level of your sleep cycle. So, what is the most optimal level of your sleep cycle for waking up and why is it important? 

Sleep Stages And The Best Time To Wake Up! 

Think about your sleep as the time of being under maintenance! As it has been made abundantly evident, a normal sleep cycle occurs in 3 broad stages. Namely, light sleep, deep sleep, and REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. Ideally, our body passes through these stages several times during the course of the night. Waking up in the lightest stage of your sleep has proven to provide the best of the best ‘ wake up call’ 

A traditional alarm clock goes off at the time you set it without any or adequate knowledge about what stage of the sleep cycle you might be experiencing. Are we right or are we right? Consideration of what sleep stage you are in while being woken up is vital to fending off any chances of sleep inertia or ‘sleep intoxication’ Abrupt awakening during the REM stage of sleep leads to grogginess and the need to go back to bed and sleep more, irrespective of the amount of time you’ve slept in! Thus, making the traditional alarm clock quite redundant. Enter, iBand+,  with its one-of-a-kind smart alarm that helps you wake up not just effectively but also efficiently. 

The iBand+ featuring the Smart Alarm 

Considered as the most advanced feature of this EEG Brain Sensing Headband that wakes you up slowly, steadily with simulated sunlight, sounds at the most optimal period of your sleep cycle. Setting up the smart alarm is a mere two-step routine. Imagine, getting the best out of your sleeping time in nothing but two simple steps with the iBand+ App : 

• Setting up the alarm time – which is roughly the time you would want to wake up. 
• Setting up the smart wake window, which is a time frame of 15,20,30, or even 40 minutes before your alarm time. 

The iBand+ tracks your brain-waves and head movements throughout the night and is aware of what exact part of the sleep cycle you are in. It triggers the smart alarm at the optimal, light sleep period during the smart wake window. Brilliant stuff isn’t it? The AI-powered iBand+ functions in such a way, that it has entire knowledge about your sleep cycle. The iBand+ intelligently adjusts audio-visual signals to induce lucid dreaming, making you fall asleep easily and eventually paving the way to wake up naturally and fresh!