The device costs $99 and users can track their sleep worth on their phones
A 22-year-old British entrepreneur’s new sleep-tracking kit has cracked $1.2m (£708,000) in its first week on Kickstarter’s crowdfunding platform.
James Proud launched his product, Sense, on 23 July with a goal of raising $100,000 within 30 days.
But it passed the $1m-mark on Sunday, and has been forecast to raise more than $4m by the period’s end.
Sense includes an orb that monitors the bedroom, a clip that attaches to the pillow, and a mobile phone app.
The tools produces a unique score for the previous night’s sleep and aims to wake the owner up at the best point in their sleep cycle.
It is due to ship in November and can be ordered in advance for $129.
Mr Proud said sleep was a natural area to focus on.
“We spend a third of our day doing it,” he told the BBC.
“It’s the most critical part of the day, as how we perform when we’re aware depends on how well we slept.”
Sense is one of a growing number of sleep-focused products as “smart” technologies start to filter into homes, offering new ways to track our health.
The Sense orb contains a microphone, proximity sensor and LEDs, which allow it to glow
Apps such as Sleep Cycle, Sleepbot and Sleepmaster are already used by iPhone, Android and Windows Phone users to track their slumber using sensors built into the handsets.
There are also specialist hardware devices such as Aura, from the French firm Withings, and a $8,000 “snore-stopping” bed.
Earlier this year, Apple announced its forthcoming Healthkit app, which can gather sleep-related data from third-party devices. The 9to5Mac news site also reported the company had hired Roy Raymann, a Dutch sleep research expert, fuelling speculation the company may be about to release its own sleep-monitoring smart watch.
