Been looking for a way to make sure your kids actually fall asleep when they head off to bed and aren’t just playing with the iPad under the covers? It was here for a short while, but now, it’s temporarily gone away.
Sevenhugs, the creator of the HugOne sleep monitoring system and the Smart Remote, raised $14.6 million to fund its U.S. expansion a few months ago and made its official U.S. debut on Amazon Launchpad soon thereafter. However, it appears that production of the HugOne Sleep Tracking System has been “paused.”
As first reported by CNET, production of the $180 system has ceased for the time being. It’s unclear as of yet why this happened or for how long it will be the case.
The HugOne system differentiated itself by being capable of interfacing with both Nest and Philips Hue products and was designed to fully integrate with smart home systems. According to Simon Tchedikian, CEO and co-founder of Sevenhugs, he and his partners wanted to bring technological solutions into their homes, so they started creating solutions themselves.
Unfortunately, his family often found it easier to physically switch on a light than to use the technology he created to accomplish the same task. He wanted to create products that simplified home technology and make it practical and effortless to use.
The company’s flagship product, the HugOne, is a sleep-monitoring system that Tchedikian developed to help create healthy sleep patterns for his children. The system has a central hub and small battery-powered sensors that monitor each family member’s sleep.
The individual sleep monitors also provide data on humidity, temperature, and indoor air quality, and integrate with home thermostats and smart bulbs. Individual sleep sensors are designed to last up to six months before the batteries need to be changed and are small enough to escape notice on any size bed.
Tchedikian cited studies that reveal one out of every four children have trouble sleeping and parents typically are not aware of the problems their children experience.
“Seventy percent of children and 90 percent of teens do not get enough sleep, and only a half hour of sleep irregularity impacts a child’s functional ability during the day,” he told Digital Trends. The HugOne is designed to combat these trends in unhealthy sleep patterns and to help parents be aware of current sleep patterns in order to develop better sleep habits.
When HugOne debuted on Amazon Launchpad, it became one of the few lucky startup products to make its way onto a global distribution platform. “We are honored to be one of the businesses participating in the Amazon Launchpad program,” said Tchedikian. “We believe that Amazon’s ongoing commitment to provide its customers with unique and impactful products perfectly aligns with the motivation behind our HugOne solution.” But at least for the time being, that luck has run out. While you can still purchase used units on Launchpad, it might be wise to hold off on making any purchases until we know more.