Mark Zuckerberg built this device to help his wife sleep

By Shubham Sharma

Apr 29, 2019

12:05 pm

What's the story

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of social media giant Facebook, has invented an adorable device to help his wife, Priscilla Chan, sleep without worrying about the time to check on kids. The device, which he calls 'sleep box', emits a faint light indicating when it is the time to take care of kids and when it's not. Here's all about it.

Device

Stress of time tracking affected Chan's sleep

Zuckerberg recently showcased the 'sleep box' on Facebook, explaining how it helped Chan, who's a philanthropist and pediatrician, sleep peacefully. He said she used to wake up in the night and check her phone to see if it's time for the kids to wake up. However, despite being early, knowing the exact time would stress her out, ultimately keeping her from falling back asleep.

Solution

So, Zuckerberg built the 'sleep box'

Knowing how difficult it could be for his wife, Zuckerberg employed his engineering skills and designed the 'sleep box'. The screen-free box-like device, as he explained, emits a faint light between 6 and 7 am, indicating to Chan that either one of them has to go check on kids. This way, she doesn't have to worry and stress about the exact time.

Facebook Post

This is the 'sleep box'

Information

And, the light of the device doesn't disturb her

Adding about the device's functionality, Zuckerberg said that the light it emits is visible enough to indicate the time but also faint enough to not break their sleep.

Results

And, the device has worked well so far

Zuckerberg added that the device worked better than he ever expected and his wife can now sleep through the night without any issues. "Since it doesn't show the time if she wakes up in the middle of the night, she knows to just go back to sleep without having to worry about what time it is," he wrote in the Facebook post.

Problem

Screen time at night has been blamed for sleep-deprivation

The solution from Zuckerberg has worked because it doesn't feature any display, which has been blamed, for sleep deprivation by scientists. As Quartz reports, using phones at night has been linked to poor sleep quality as the human brain perceives the piercing light from the phone's display as daylight, which ultimately suppresses the hormone related to circadian rhythms, affecting sleep.