By Lauren Ferrone
You know that unusually euphoric drowsy feeling – where your head feels light as a feather, but heavy as a brick at the same time?
Then, before you know it, you’re floating on a bed of clouds until, just three minutes later, you’re snapped back to consciousness by someone waking you.
Sounds like a nightmare, but take it from South Australian researchers – it’ll actually be the best sleep you’ve ever had.
Now, in a study that has caught the attention of researchers worldwide, Flinders University has launched a crowdfunding project for its wearable sleep device Thim; putting their theory to test that depriving someone of sleep for one night can actually improve sleeping patterns in the long term.
Thim is a device created to help people fall asleep faster and for longer
Based on decade-long university research, Thim is a device placed on the finger before bed, and works by gently waking you three minutes after falling asleep, in a technique known as sleep re-training.
Invented by Emeritus Professor Leon Lack, the device trains poor sleepers to fall asleep sooner with the aim to provide relief for half a billion poor sleepers around the world.
University Professor Leon Lack, who studied at Stanford University in California before moving to Australia to lead the Sleep Lab at Flinders University in 1980, found you could learn to fall asleep sooner if you experience the sensation of falling asleep over and over again. It’s a discovery that paved the way for Thim.
Professor Lack’s preliminary research involved participants falling asleep before being woken three minutes later. The process was repeated for one hour.
Invented by Flinders University Emeritus Professor Leon Lack, the device may provide relief for half a billion poor sleepers around the world
Sleeping well is ‘learned’
One week after their night of sleep re-training, participants were apparently falling asleep 30 minutes sooner and sleeping more than one hour longer
Professor Lack’s research shows “falling asleep again and again” conditions the body to fall asleep sooner.
“Sleeping well becomes “learned” and you then do it with ease for a longer nights rest,” Professor Lack says.
“This device has the potential to benefit so many people around the world, and from our own research we know that it works,” he adds.
In addition to sleep re-training, Thim can also apparently be used to: take the perfect power nap; measure sleep with incredible accuracy; track sleep quality; and provides a ‘sleep score’.
Thim founder, Ben Olsen, (pictured in headline image) says all too often advancements in science are “left in lab”.
“Sleep re-training and power napping demand an accurate wearable. We’ve achieved this and, in doing so, by re-inventing the wearable for sleep,” Ben says.
“This is a chance for pioneering research to make its way into the hands of the community. What better place to finance it than through a community based platform like Kickstarter crowdfunding.
“We don’t want this breakthrough to remain in scientific journals,” he adds.
Thim founder, Ben Olsen, says the crowdfunding project will help take the device out of the lab and into the community
South Australia collaborates on global platform
Professor Lack first worked with Ben in 2012 to bring his Re-Timer light therapy glasses, which help people re-time their body clocks and fall asleep more easily, to the community.
Re-Timer is now assembled in a state of the art clean room in Adelaide and has been sold in more than 40 different countries worldwide.
Ben has also studied business at several universities including Flinders, Adelaide and Harvard.
The team require $120,000 to complete the development. If successful, supporters will receive the first devices in May next year. If unsuccessful, all supporters get their money back.
People have just over a month to support the Thim Kickstarter crowdfunding project. The first 50 Thim units are available for pre-order on the kick-starter page for $109. Watch the Thim journey below.