Dr. Wei-Shin Lai, family physician, and husband Jason Wolfe, a video game developer, discuss their interesting and organic journey as sleep improvement entrepreneurs born out of necessity. They detail the process of how their company, SleepPhones (sleepphones.com) came to be, and discuss the many benefits of their soft, sleeping aid. 

 

Confronting her own problem of getting to sleep efficiently, especially after late night work, Dr. Lai explains how she sought a better solution. She often used meditative music for relaxation but found that headphones were clumsy and awkward, and ear buds were just plain uncomfortable. As necessity is the mother of invention, Dr. Lai set out to create her own. After creating the first successful working prototype of her soft, sleeping aid, she enlisted the partnership of her husband as they soldered and sewed the first 500 units right on their kitchen table. And spreading her good fortune, Dr. Lai began to provide this sleeping solution to many of her patients who suffered from bad sleep or insomnia and were regularly taking sleeping pills to assist them with sleep.

 

 

Lai and Wolfe discuss the technology behind their product. And after eleven years in business, they have continued to advance and improve their product. As they state, many people find that the SleepPhones headband is more comfortable than competitors' products, even the much bigger companies with large revenue. 

 

One of the additional benefits to their product is that it is designed to sit over the ear making them supremely comfortable even for those who sleep on their side. Their super soft headband is made of their specialized SheepCloud™ fabrics, and contains very thin, padded removable speakers in which users can play any auditory preference, from music, to audiobooks, meditations, white noise, or anything else that an individual finds relaxing and helps them to fall asleep.

 

Dr. Lai talks about the various testimonials they have received from people who have now been able to end their use of sleeping pills. People have stated that the sleeping headphones have even saved marriages, helping people get their sleep when sharing beds with partners who snore, etc. 

 

Wolfe discusses some of the content providers they have worked with, and he hints about the new initiative they have developed internally that utilizes AI and machine learning to discover what sound technologies are the most effective for various applications. And Lai and Wolfe discuss the many fabrics that they offer in their products, that vary for user preferences, environments, and differing climates.