Philips announced this week that the company’s SmartSleep Deep Sleep Headband will be used in research funded by the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH), which receives funding from NASA. The research will use the company’s Deep Sleep Headband to determine whether auditory stimulation can improve sleep during deep sleep exploration. Additionally, the research will examine the Deep Sleep Headband’s impact on cognitive performance. 

The company’s Deep Sleep Headband faces competition from several companies active in the Consumer Sleep Technology patent field, including Dreem and Sleep Shepherd. All three companies sell devices that use EEG data to provide audio stimuli to enhance sleep. However, while Dreem has a single patent application and Sleep Shepherd has a single issued patent, Phillips continues to dominate in this market with 29 environmental control documents alone. Smaller companies will need significant differentiation to succeed in this space or appear attractive to Philips.