Companies catering to people suffering from sleeplessness are now in vogue as Japan goes through "the era of insomnia." Panasonic Electric Works Co. is offering the "Restino". A device that automatically controls light and sound factors to determine whether a person can be healed and can wake up fully refreshed. Designed to create the ideal sleeping environment, the product helps a person fall asleep smoothly and wake with the aid of lighting and a speaker incorporated into the bed.
For more than 25 years, Panasonic Electric Works has been researching ways to establish an environment ideal for getting a peaceful night's rest. They invented a bed equipped with the Panasonic system. First, you set the clock to the preferred wakeup time and then lie there as music and lighting lull you to sleep.
A sensor under the mattress can detect the sleeper's body movements during muggy summer nights and automatically start up the air conditioner. It can also gradually turn on lights and music prior to wakeup time so the person can ease slowly out of their sleep.
A capsule hotel named 9h (meaning nine hours) opened in Kyoto in December claiming itself as the ultimate healing place for sleeplessness. Decked out basically in white, the hotel's interior is highly sophisticated and gives the impression it is a high-grade guesthouse. There are no vending machines or background music.
9h's single rooms, called "sleeping pods," look like the chambers in a capsule hotel except there are no TVs or alarm clocks. The light in the structure facilitates drowsiness in the evening, and the intensity is raised in the morning to wake people up.
Keisuke Yui, the president of Cubic Co., which runs the hotel, said 9h is managed on the assumption that guests will spend an hour taking a shower, seven hours sleeping and an hour to get dressed.
Adapted from:
Kyodo News
By SATOSHI TOI
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Teacher Ackie