Sleep Anywhere, Anytime With MUJI’s New App
Japanese company MUJI has a brand aesthetic that screams, er, whispers (shh) neutral. Classic, simple, stylish, but not flashy or even all that noticeable. In similar ranks as IKEA for furniture and H&M for clothing, they’ve gained quite a following for the minimal (but not like, edgy/artistic minimal) lifestyle goods that can suit just about anyone’s taste. Sound sleepy to you? Well good, because they *want* to put you to sleep. With their new app, that is.
MUJI has released an app to work in harmony with their favorite travel neck pillow to help make sure you can fall asleep anytime, anywhere. This isn’t any ol’ neck pillow — their Well-Fitted Neck Cushion won TripAdvisor’s “Travelers’ Choice – Travelers Favorites – 2014.” Impressive. Impressive enough to warrant its own companion app even.
MUJI to Sleep, like most viral apps, is super simple in its concept and design. You simply flip through six different, beautifully illustrated, soothing sounds to help you drift off to sleep. The only other function is the option to set a timer.
As simple as it is to use, the crafting of the app was a bit more complex. To help you feel completely immersed in the environments you’re hearing, all of the sounds were captured onsite in Japan with a “dummy head.” This is a microphone that records audio in the same way a human head hears it. This technology really grounds you in the sounds and drowns out your surroundings.
You’ll notice that everyone in the video is wearing headphones. This is not necessary, but it’s encouraged for you to get the full sleep experience. We love the idea of an app enhancing a tangible product (the neck cushion), but unlike gadgets that are part of the Internet of Things, this is just a simple pillow. It doesn’t to be plugged in or charged. But it is just all the more comfortable with the right sounds to get you to sleep. MUJI even created a site dedicating to showing you how beneficial the pillow/app pairing can be.
There seems to be a new study out everyday about how we need to get more sleep if we want to continue to be happy, healthy and beautiful. MUJI to Sleep can make this easier, even without a cozy comforter to wrap up in in your comfy bed. You can download it for free for iPhone or Android.
Got an app or device that you can’t sleep without? We want to know about it in the comments!
