The Sleep Guide: A Good Night's Sleep Essentials

Based on heat-absorbing / heat-releasing technology originally engineered for NASA astronauts, Slumber Cloud bedding includes a complete line of nighttime linens and accessories designed to give you a chill (or toasty) night's sleep.

For example, the 350-thread-count Stratus sheet set has a tactile resemblance to flannel, but nowhere near that heavy. They're a 50/50 blend of cotton and Slumber Cloud's NASA fabric, Outlast viscose. Outlast is designed to absorb heat when your body temperature jacks up, store it in its fibers, and then release the heat back to you when it falls back down.

The Nacreous Mattress Pad uses a double layer of Outlast as its top cover and coated lining fabric to enhance its heat management abilities. It adds about an inch of pillowy thickness to your existing mattress, and is hypoallergenic and machine-washable.

Slumber Cloud also carries temperature-controlled pillows, pillow covers, duvets, and bedding bundles that combine some or all of the above into a cool, snooze-perfect set.

One time I threw a boomerang and it came back and sliced me in the neck. So I'm glad to see this Boomerang Memory Foam Pillow is here to cradle and support and eliminate pain from my neck, and maybe make some amends for its fellow countryman's being a giant a-hole.

Celliant Sleep's Boomerang stuffs its memory foam guts inside a curvy, 3-headed design so it will look more like a fidget spinner, and therefore sell better.

Kidding.

They did it so you'll be able to find a "comfort zone" on the pillow regardless of what position you choose to sleep in. Reviewers report best-night-sleep levels of enthusiasm on their stomachs, sides, and backs.

I thought maybe SleepPhones blocked out the sounds of snoring and garbage trucks and sirens and stupid F'ing songbirds with some sort of industrial acoustic insulation woven inside their fleece headband, but the self-described "pajamas for your ears" are actually a set of headphones. According to their makers, the softest, most pleasant headphones you'll ever wear, and the ultimate accessory for listening to music, TV, or white noises that do assist in blocking out sounds of the above nuisances in bed.

SleepPhones are lined with thin, removable speakers whose wire plugs into any device with a 3.5mm jack. Unlike regular headphones and earbuds, their fitted headband design makes them comfortable to wear all night, as well as prevents them from falling away from your ears, wrapping around your neck, and strangling you as you turn over.

Not one to settle for mail-order mattresses alone, Yaasa has developed the Yaasa Adjustable Bed to accompany their hybrid foam-and-coil snooze cushion. At first glance, this bed looks: 1) like something I would like to have to soothe and sit me upright when I'm so hungover I can hardly roll over on New Year's Day; and 2) Attractively minimalist and stylin' for what is essentially a piece of furniture you'd typically only see in hospitals and your grandma's bedroom.

The Yaasa Adjustable Bed comes with a backlit wireless remote that has one-button position changes between Flat, Anti-Snore, and Zero Gravity. There is also a full range of custom adjustment options for you to tweak to elevate your upper and lower body for working and reading, watching TV, or promoting blood circulation.

You still might punch Philips' Wake-up Light to East Jesus when it begins its simulation of the sunrise T-minus-30 to get up time each morning, but maybe the gradual brightening of your lair will remove some of the typical rage you'll feel as you do it.

When set, the Wake-up Light begins to glow 30 minutes before your designated alarm time, and then increases in brightness until you're fully awash in "natural" yellow sunlight. Philips (and I guess science-y studies) believe this crescendo process stimulates the body to wake up comfortably and almost as if by choice. (However, if you have a rebellious body, the alarm clock also emits a gentle beep once the light hits full force.)

Imagine if your mattress--your mattress, the one you currently own and love--could warm you up nice & toasty this winter, tell you exactly how well you're sleeping each night, wake you up gently every morning, and even start brewing your coffee as soon as your feet hit the floor. If that reverie loos like one you'd like to see IRL, check out this smart mattress cover with integrated sleep tracker and bed warmer from Eight Sleep.

The Eight Sleep smart cover slips and secures over almost any type of mattress, including memory foam and latex, innerspring, air, and those with adjustable bases. In use it pairs with an iPhone or Android app to: track your sleep patterns; warm your bed; collaborate with smart home gadgets, such as thermostats and coffee makers; wake you up with an integrated smart alarm; and play white noise to help you fall and stay asleep.

To me, yoga at its finest means Savasana. Corpse pose. Lie there in a hot room on a cold day and think of nothing but your deep inhale [belly rise] and deep exhale [belly fall]. With maybe a thought or two spared for the Chicago-style deep dish you're going to devour from the pizza place next door to the yoga studio after class is over.

Sleep Yoga Posture Pillows dig Savasanas too. But rather than dreaming of thick crust and an inch of cheese, they let their meditative breaths lead them to a concept for bringing the benefits of yoga to the bedroom, and to our nightly checkout from consciousness. Sleep Yoga Posture Pillows are designed to help you achieve benefits similar to yoga - improved posture, freer breathing, and increased oxygen flow - while you sleep.

Sleep Yoga pillows come in a few different shapes and sizes, each suitable for different styles of sleeping, sleep preferences, and body types.

The NodPod, a weighted sleep therapy mask, touts benefits similar to the Magic Weighted Blanket, but over the smaller, confined areas of your head and neck. (And with a blackout effect that won't also suffocate you like the blanket's would.) According to NodPod, "When gentle pressure is applied to the body it has a profound calming effect." They call it Deep Pressure Touch therapy.

The NodPod mask is weighted with scent-free microbeads that apply gentle pressure to the eyes, forehead, or neck in an effort to reduce stress and anxiety and, when you need some shuteye, promote a deeper and more restful sleep. Some also find relief from headaches and eye strain through NodPod use.

You can vape mind-altering herbs, essential oils, and fruity waxes into the evening, but when bedtime hits...and insomnia follows...NutroVape will let you inhale sleep. The self-described "delivery system" stores a cartridge of liquified over-the-counter sleep and relaxation supplements in the base of vape pen. When you inhale, NutroVape atomizes the liquid and releases it as a vapor of slumber. The point, besides capitalizing on the vaping trend, is to produce far faster results than pills and drinks because the inhalation method can bypass your digestive system--there's no need to break down, process, or separate the goods from the filler.

Listen, my mama swears by this stuff. Not so much if you have trouble falling asleep in the first place, but if you tend to wake up in the middle of the night, and then struggle to fall back asleep, a few ounces of tart cherry juice sometime in the afternoon before bed could solve your problem. Why?

Cherries are a natural source of melatonin, the hormone that helps regulate your sleep-wake cycle. And cherry juice is a highly concentrated dose of a pile of cherries, so there you go. And despite the "tart" in its name, tart cherry juice tastes pretty darn good - a helluva lot better than a melatonin pill anyway.

Holi's SleepCompanion has combined the principles behind a sunrise alarm clock with the skills of a sleep tracker in hopes of producing a Super Servant of the Snooze whose whole is wholly greater than the sum of its parts.

In appearance, the SleepCompanion is a light bulb. It replaces any existing bulb in your bedroom, and then connects to any iOS 8+ or Android 4.3 phone/tablet via Bluetooth Smart. Embedded sensors in the bulb enable it to adjust its lighting levels based on the time of day, combining different types of LEDs to influence your body's melatonin (sleep hormone) levels.

According to Holi, there is a scientifically proven correlation between lighting wavelengths and the body's secretion of melatonin. So when it's time to sleep, the SleepCompanion emits a reddish light, a color free of melatonin-inhibiting wavelengths. At wake-up time, precisely-defined blue wavelengths of light act to decrease the level of melatonin, and pull you back to reality smoothly. For those who have trouble falling asleep, the bulb and its accompanying app can also play a light-guided relaxation program.

SleepCompanion sensors also take environmental readings throughout the day. They track bedroom temperature, noise, and brightness levels, and can pair if desired with several other environmental sensors and wearable tech devices to help you further understand your sleep patterns and what might be affecting them.