Silicon Valley companies tackle national sleeplessness problem

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KGO) -- An estimated 50 to 70 million Americans have sleep disorders, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and that can impact productivity at work as well as people's health. Technology is starting to address the problem.

Techn companies focused on a problem many have, sleeplessness, at a sleep summit in Santa Clara Wednesday. The length of sleep is one factor, but so is the quality of sleep and solutions are in the pipeline.

Millions of Americans can't sleep or get enough sleep. Technology is the great hope to solve those issues, from devices that monitor your sleep patterns, to a ring that can warn that you're having a low-energy day.

"We're using monitoring devices that can go into bed, beside the bed. Change the lighting. Tell us about activity during the day which can help us sleep better at night. It's really amazing," said Michael Breus, a clinical sleep psychologist. "

Google is using nap pods to allow employees to take a short, 15-minute nap to make up for a long night of coding, or non-stop meetings. Soothing music helps lull you to sleep and gently wakes you up.

A pillow originally created to help young people with autism to relax and fall asleep is being tested now on adults who say they've never slept better by listening to music vibrations.

"The gentle vibration goes through your cranium to your inner ear, and it's massaging the part of your brain that is responsible for your relaxation response, so you kind of calm down," said Scott Stern.

A Finnish company has designed a ring that monitors pulse and analyzes biometrics. It can warn you if you're not well rested.

"The ring starts learning about you and giving you recommendations, this might be a good day to rest, recover to get your readiness level up," said Markku Hooli of Ouraring.

Sleep experts and tech start-ups are hoping to work closely together to help solve sleep issues.

It's not a far-fetched concept that Silicon Valley and other technology leaders will be jumping in to try to help everyone sleep better at night.