Today's decked-out domiciles are big on gear that helps you get a good night's sleep, keep the germs away, and stay fitPeter Bils has a bone to pick with Big Pharma. Drug companies generate some $2 billion a year from sales of prescription pills designed to help people get a good night's sleep. As an executive at the biggest U.S. bed retailer, Bils reckons that what many folks need isn't medication, but—you guessed it—a better bed. "Pharmaceutical [companies] are looking to regulate your sleep and wake cycles with pills," says Bils, who's chairman of the sleep advisory board of Select Comfort. "All it really takes is improving your sleep in the first place."
Which is why Minneapolis' Select Comfort (SCSS) adds controllers and air chambers that let users set personalized comfort levels for their side of the bed. And using recent research that shows people need seven cycles of sleep for the best rest, the maker of the Sleep Number bed is investigating new products that would help regulate those rhythms with natural sleep aids like lighting control and watches that calculate a body's high and low points during the day.
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