Smart devices for waking up to sunshine and happiness

THE Withings Aura, the bedside device that wakes up users gradually with blue melatonin light, will now play your favorite Spotify music in addition to making sure you start your day off right.

What's more, Aura will now come in two different versions, the new Aura Connected Alarm Clock (£149.95, approximately $227.50) and the Aura Total Sleep System (£249.95 approximately $379), which includes a sleep sensor that gives you a full report of how you sleep.

The sleep sensor wakes you up at an optimal time in your sleep cycle -- when your sleep lightens -- to minimize grogginess.

Drifting into sweet dreams and pure oblivion

Fusing the benefits of bedtime light therapy and music from Spotify's sleep-dedicated playlists, the Aura does everything but rock you to sleep.

Emitting red light -- the only kind that doesn't inhibit melatonin secretion -- combined with nature sounds or relaxing music, the program aims to get you to doze off within 20 minutes.

What's more, it plays colorful noises such as pink noise -- also known as flicker noise -- similar to those that occur in nature and are thought to help you get to sleep due to their frequency.

What's to come

By the end of the year, Withings will include a recommendation system in their Health Mate application combining your musical tastes with data on the music's ability to help users fall asleep.

http://www2.withings.com/us/en//store

In other sleep news

This week electronics giant Samsung also showed off a sleep device called SleepSense, at German trade show IFA.

The device, a sensor that is slipped under one's mattress, is designed to be a personal sleep consultant, assessing sleep quantity quality and provides a report that includes advice that can be accessed via a mobile app.