If you’re having trouble sleeping, AI assistant Alexa may be able to help. The chatty, hands-free assistant that forms the brains of the hugely successful Amazon Echo, as well as a range of smart TVs, smartwatches, bluetooth speakers, smartphones, and more have a number of features that can help you drift off at night.
Amazon is always adding new features and tweaking existing behind-the-scenes tricks (remember when a reference to the Handforth Parish Council meeting was added within hours of Jackie Weaver going viral). After World Sleep Day on Friday March 19th, some of these were highlighted Alexa features are designed to increase your Kip.
Here are some of our favorites …
Guided meditation
Alexa offers a variety of meditation and mindfulness skills accessible through the Alexa Companion app on your iPhone or Android device. This can be a great way to relax before bed after a stressful day. If you’d rather not pull out your phone, you can use voice features to start the feature. For a quick meditation, say, “Alexa, please play Sweet Dreams [name of meditation]. ”Here you can enjoy meditations like“ Fall asleep ”,“ Soften and relax ”,“ Breathe in waves ”and“ Check the day ”.
Each mediation lasts a specific number of minutes and offers guided steps for deep breathing and other actions designed to calm your mind and body.
Night light
Not everyone sleeps so well in a pitch black room … but sometimes a lamp or bedside light can be a bit too much. If you are just looking for a small light to reduce the darkness in your room, you can use the ring light from Echo or Echo Dot meaningfully with Alexa.
Just say “Alexa, open night light” and the top of your echo will start glowing and pulsing. This is especially useful when you have to get up at night as it provides just the right amount of light. When you’re ready to turn off the night light, just say, “Alexa, stop it.”
Of course, if you have an Alexa Smart Plug, you can also use the chatty AI to take control of the lighting in your room. If you want to keep a lamp on while you fall asleep but worry about keeping it on all night, just set up a timed routine using the Alexa app that lets you choose when to turn off the lights each night becomes. Smart lightbulbs that can be added to the Alexa app can do the same tricks.
Relaxation music
Alexa can help you fall asleep by serving relaxing music. Say, “Alexa, play some relaxation music.” Alexa plays a restful music playlist to clear your mind and relax your body while you fall asleep. You can also set a music timer to control how long you want Alexa to play music by saying, “Alexa, play relaxation music for an hour.”
Ambient noise
The Relaxing Sounds Alexa Skill can play a number of sounds, such as: B. ocean waves, a babbling brook, a rainforest, frogs, pink noise, windy trees, rain on a tent, dripping water, a blizzard, an owl, cicadas and loons. To discover all of the sounds, look up the ability in the Alexa app or say, “Alexa, ask Relaxing Sounds for a list.”
For example, to hear a specific sound, say, “Alexa, ask about relaxing sounds for ocean waves”. If you don’t know what to ask for, you can also say, “Alexa, ask Relaxing Sounds for a random sound” to have the skill pick the sound.
Sleep stories
Whether you’re an adult trying to fall asleep or you have a child who is struggling to drift off, sometimes a good bedtime story can help. With the Sleep Stories Alexa Skill, a soothing voice tells you a story to help you drift away. Say “Alexa, play sleep stories,” and the voice will begin telling a random story. If you don’t like the current story, just say, “Alexa, ask Sleep Stories to play the next story,” and a new story will start playing.
