Life
These Are Way Cooler Than Your Average Earplugs
Anyone who's ever lived in an apartment is familiar with the feeling when you're trying to sleep, but it sounds like everyone else's social lives are just getting started. In theory, you could just wear earplugs to bed, but how would you hear your alarm? Also, let's be real, we all know people who can't stand to be parted from their smartphone for so long, which is why these "smart" earplugs that block out everything but phone notifications are so awesome.I have to admit, when I first read about these I was a little skeptical. If you're worrying about noise, chances are you're trying to focus, and phones are notoriously bad for concentration. To make things worse, research indicates that the blue light that emanates from electronics disrupts your melatonin levels, making it harder to sleep. Sounds like canceling out everything but your phone won't really help, right? Actually, the earplugs, known as Hush, work with an app on your phone that lets you filter which notifications you hear while you're asleep, Mashable reports. So you can silence the alerts from that one friend who texts you 14 times in a row every time there's a new Star Wars development while still allowing phone calls or alarms to come through.
In addition to the noise-eliminating foam, the earplugs can also be adjusted to make sounds, like white noise, rainfall, or even binaural beats, and they last up to 10 hours at a time. Plus, if you're the type who loses small objects almost immediately, there's even a tracker built into the app that lets you locate them. Basically, the masterminds behind Hush, a group of engineering students at University of California, San Diego, thought of pretty much everything. While it turns out that adults need less sleep than you'd think, more than half of American adults don't get the recommended amount every night. In fact, with sleep deprivation being declared a "public health epidemic" by the Centers for Disease Control this year, this app couldn't have better timing. Hush's Kickstarter surpassed its goal of $100,000 a long time ago, and it's currently at more than $340,000 with 22 days to go. The earplugs are slated for retail sometime in June for $149. Pretty pricey, but what would you pay for a good night's sleep?
