SleepPhones® Blog July 2008 Through October 2009
New Design SleepPhones
October 20, 2009
Our pretty recycled blue SleepPhones have arrived! They will be available for sale by this weekend. I'm still designing the instructional brochures for these.
This is the newest design of SleepPhones with a velcro closure, completely adjustable and removable speakers, and super soft and stretchy. The black and blue fabrics are 88% recycled plastic bottles, 12% spandex, from Polartec®, a fabric manufacturer in Massachusettes. The fabric can be tossed in the washing machine when the speakers have been removed. To keep its antistatic, wicking properties, we advise not using fabric softener.
We are very excited about these new SleepPhones. They will eventually replace all other models. For now, we will continue to sell the older models until they are gone because some people may like them more. This new model will be the ones going to retail stores in the next few months.
Pictures from the Entrepreneurial Women's Expo
About 2 weeks ago, SleepPhones attended a local women-owned business expo. It was there that I decided to start keeping a blog for SleepPhones.
Here, Gina and I set up our expo booth.
Gina, one of our employees visiting a photography booth.
Carrie, another employee (and avid SleepPhones user), talks to her mother Linda, who happens to be our small business advisor.
Kerri Smith, in her wedding dress, of Nittany Weddings has been very helpful for our marketing efforts.
The MC (left) and the organizer (right) of the Expo.
So who is London Wolfe? It's these 2 talented photography gals in Altoona. Their apprentice took most of the pictures on this page.
Third Prototype
We tried a variety of designs before settling with the prototype version we ended up with. This picture shows the first headband headphones. I didn't own a sewing machine at the time, so I was hand-sewing everything with a needle and thread. It was quite tedious, so I soon got a sewing machine for my birthday! That's when we were able to get more serious with the product design. I learned what a bobbin was finally and started to sew. I made many, with many materials, in many sizes, and with many tweaks. Finally I had a design I was happy with, and it's still being sold today! Here, one of our stuffed animal sheep is wearing its SleepPhones. It's sleeping comfortably while listening to an iPod filled with sleep tracks! (It seems that it's always sleeping for some reason...)
Second SleepPhones® Headphones Prototype
Here are a few more initial prototype pictures.
More headband configurations.
Here is the top of the head band.
This is the sleeping cap configuration. I just wasn't used to wearing a night cap to bed, so it didn't work out for me. And it causes a bad case of hat hair in the morning.
SleepPhones® headphones in a sleeping cap configuration.
The sheep on the night cap design here was the logo I initially drew. It wasn't quite as cute as the professional logo we eventually had made.
SleepPhones® headphones as a sleep cap with an early sheep logo.
First SleepPhones® Headphones Prototype
Hehe... this is the first prototype for SleepPhones. Nothing like it actually looks now. It was made with flannel sewn down around a plastic headband. We used some giant speakers we bought from American Science and Surplus and some wires we wrapped with black electrical tape. (We love American Science and Surplus. They've got really cool toys for do-it-yourself type people.) It didn't stay on at all, and it was quite uncomfortable. But the concept of using fabric over speakers was there. And so was the idea of an atypical exit for the wire — closer to the top of the head. Since SleepPhones are meant to be used in bed, the wire needed to be as unobtrusive as possible. We figured that while sleeping, the top of the head is the area least likely to move as much. So if the wire came out there, then it would be less likely yanked.
Local weather: Record breaking early season snow falls
It started snowing October 15th and will continue to snow until October 17th. We've had 6 inches already, and many people around town are out of power. When the trees still have lots of leaves, they are much heavier, so they will break and take down power lines more quickly. So far, we still have power, but I'm not sure how much longer that will last. Over 10,000 local residents have lost power (20% of the region). If it goes out, or if the cable goes out, we may have delays in sending out orders. Here's a picture from our deck. It's beautiful and quiet outside. It's the earliest snow fall on record for Centre County PA! (The previous record was set on Oct. 18, 1901.)
Malta, English-Speaking Vacation Spot in the Mediterranean Sea
October 14, 2009
Malta? Where in the world is that? I've only heard of the Maltese Cross. Apparently, Malta is in the Mediterranean, near Italy, Sicily, and Northern Africa, and it speaks English!
Well, SleepPhones has now shipped its third order to Malta now! I guess we've got a following there. It looks like a beautiful place. We might have to take a vacation there one day... We haven't actually been out of the country for 5 years, so I don't know when we'll get around to it, but I've love to see the Mediterranean! And I love Northern African food.
Grammar Girl and SleepPhones
Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty, author of Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing and her new book The Grammar Devotional: Daily Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl, is going on a book signing tour! She is currently in Las Vegas and will be visiting many bookstores around the country. She will be bringing SleepPhones with her and will give some away on her tour! She's a big fan of SleepPhones, which she uses for listening to audiobooks. Her book tour schedule is in Facebook Events. You can also find her on Twitter @GrammarGirl.
RANA-Medical: Our First Distributor in Canada!
RANA-Medical is a sleep apnea clinic service in Canada. They will be selling SleepPhones alongside sleep apnea equipment! I guess when the sleep apnea person wears all sorts of noisy contraptions, it's nice for the bed partner to have something else to listen to.
Here's a funny testimonial from one of our customers. Both husband and wife wear SleepPhones to sleep because they both snore.
"I must admit I was skeptical when my wife ordered your sleep phones. But we were desperate to find a solution for her not sleeping do to my loud snoring. I do not have apnea, I just snore loud so doctors do not want to prescribe a cpap machine and frankly, I don't want one. But, back to my point... My wife couldn't sleep and tried several products, ear plugs, white noise generators, etc etc.
A friend of ours found your product on google and we ordered one set. The first night was great! My wife slept all night long. The problem came the second night and beyond. My wife began sleeping so well that SHE started snoring. Payback I guess. Well, After a few nights of this, I order your sleepphones for me. Last night was my first night with them and I slept like a baby.
Thanks for a great product.
I look forward to many peaceful nights"
— F. Fields, Lawrenceburg, KY
Listen and Learn: SleepPhones® Headphones Can Help Cope with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)
Award-Winning Blogger Rachel Rambach from "Listen and Learn Music" just posted her review of SleepPhones® headphones! They are great headphones for school-age kids with hypersensitivity to pressure or certain materials, such as autistic kids. Warning: people with seizure disorders should not listen to binaural beats due to possible risk of inducing a seizure. However, the SleepPhones themselves are perfectly safe to wear.
Created by family physician Wei-Shin Lai, MD with her significant other and business partner Jason Wolfe after the couple experienced the consequences of interrupted and sleepless nights, SleepPhones® headphones are designed to be the world’s most comfortable headphones in order to promote healthy, effortless sleep.
As the popularity of SleepPhones® headphones grows it has become clear that the promotion of effortless sleep and camouflaging of snoring and environmental noises have additional health benefits that can be enjoyed by many others too.
In her review of her new SleepPhones® Classic headphones, Rachel Rambach, the board-certified music therapist, award-winning blogger, and creator of Listen and Learn Music writes, “I am addicted!”
Rambach, who is also a mom, has proven to be such a fan that she includes a picture of SleepPhones® headphones in use by her family’s golden retriever and encourages buying them for children, too.
She writes that the SleepPhones® Classic’s material and fit “are so comfortable that I completely forget I’m wearing them. I plug them into my iPhone, which charges on my nightstand while I sleep, and the music puts me to sleep almost instantly. Of course, my extremely long days working with kids might have a little something to do with that, but I’ll give most of the credit to my [SleepPhones® headphones]. Several readers have told me that they ordered a pair for themselves.” Thanks for the review, Rachel!
Rambach’s work in music therapy and recommendation of SleepPhones® headphones for school-aged children got us thinking. Comfortable headphones that stay securely in place must have applications beyond the promotion of better sleep made simple and could probably help people who face other challenges to improve their health and wellness. So, we did some research and found that both adults and children with sensitivity to sound can benefit from the noise disruption that comes from easy to use sleepwear too!
Sensitivity to sound is a problem experienced by people of all ages caused by a variety of factors including sensory processing disorders (SPD) including but not limited to:
- Hyperacusis (hearing sounds much louder than normal)
- Tinnitus (buzzing or ringing in the ears)
- Migraines
- Chronic fatigue
- Conditions like autism spectrum disorder
Often people with SPD can become overstimulated by the sounds of their environment and experience a variety of other uncomfortable, disruptive, and sometimes painful symptoms as a result.
Designed for adults experiencing insomnia and other challenges that kept them from a great night’s sleep, SleepPhones® headphones are a great tool for adults and school-age kids with hypersensitivity and sensory processing issues, including kids with autism spectrum disorder.
Warning: people with seizure disorders should not listen to binaural beats due to possible risk of inducing a seizure. However, SleepPhones® headphones themselves are perfectly safe to wear.
Current studies suggest that using music therapy to treat children with autism spectrum disorder has several benefits to the child including the activation of both hemispheres of the brain which allows therapists and doctors to utilize music as a teaching tool that encourages interaction and increased socialization in a comfortable setting.
In a study published in the medical journal Frontiers in Integrated Neuroscience in 2019, researchers found when paired with proper medical care that the application of sound intervention using tools like headphones had a positive effect in reducing the activation of symptoms of overstimulation in children with autism, including resulting sensitivity to touch and other environmental stimulants like bright colors and lights.
Made with hypoallergenic, machine-washable fabric, the headbands used in SleepPhones® headbands are soft and come in three sizes so that they can be worn snuggly without being too tight and uncomfortable or too loose, making the sound prevention less effective.
This helps parents to anticipate challenging situations and help their child move successfully through them by choosing comforting, familiar sounds that will act as a barrier to less predictable noises that can trigger other symptoms, all by wearing a comfortable headband that your child has time to get accustomed to.
If you’re interested in minimizing the effects of SPD and other forms of overstimulation for yourself or your child, visit our online store to shop a variety of colors and sizes of SleepPhones® headphones in order to find one that’s just right for your family’s needs!
Crowdeye
Apparently there is a twitter monitoring service out there called crowdeye. SleepPhones is now ranked on there as something to follow! Google Alerts told me about it. It's interesting the number of layers of meta-information organizers out there. It's like a nice virtual grapevine or a nosey aunt in a small town.
Automated Email Services
We have now signed up for an email service called AWeber Communications. It is a tool to collect and organize email lists from website visitors. It will send auto-responses when someone signs up. And users can automatically unsubscribe. It was strongly recommended to me by Kerri Smith, a local marketing expert at Nittany Weddings I met at the Entrepreneurial Women's Expo. Constant Contact is another service that many people use, but because of our business model, AWeber was our choice. I've installed the sign up box on 2 pages of our website. Many people arrive on the Free MP3 Download page, where they are encouraged to sign up for a free download. Hopefully that will translate eventually to sales. Most of the people looking for free stuff never end up buying anything right now. They just download the free music and never come back. If they land on the Home page and read far enough down, they are encouraged to sign up for valuable announcements in the future. Hopefully this is be an easy way to recruit new customers who are not immediately ready to buy at this time.
Twitter Giveaway, Magpie, and RevTwt
We set up a Twitter Giveaway in August to draw more attention to us. It has worked out okay from a business point of view. We have 497 Twitter followers right now, most of whom are people who participate in many giveaways to win prizes. We do have many followers who actually are interested in SleepPhones. Some of those people have bought SleepPhones. Since Twitter is a free service, only requiring my time to update, this social media outlet has been a fine marketing strategy after all for giveaways.
But I would really like to make it more valuable. We tried Magpie previously. It's a service that a person could sign up for to make money with their twitter account. Whenever they tweet about a particular topic that an advertiser has signed up for, the service will tweet through their account an ad that pertains to the previous tweet. It was expensive and really didn't bring much traffic at all. And I'm sure at this point, people have figured out how to exploit any loopholes to make the service less valuable for advertisers.
I've just signed up for RevTwt, another Twitter service that is supposed to help bring traffic. I'm going to do a pay-per-click ad. The only gripe I have with it so far is that the money paid in doesn't immediately go into the account. I guess it has to be first moderated by someone. And the ads are also moderated, so I have to wait on that too. We'll see what happens!
AcousticSheep Attends the "Entrepreneurial Women's Expo"
We had a great time at the Entrepreneurial Women's Expo in State College, PA on October 7, 2009!
Here's a picture of our display.
Here is a picture of the whole table, which we shared with our friends, the Knuetes clothing line and Eifrig Publishing.
Looks like we'll be having another Expo in 2010! See the EWE Website for more info!
The show motivated me to finally do some things to ramp up our marketing and gave me many tips on how to do it — easily and cheaply! Thanks EWE! For example, I'm starting this blog. I plan for this blog to be more business-oriented and less customer-oriented. For customers, we have Twitter and Facebook pages.
Penn State Live Writes About AcousticSheep's Work with the SBDC in "Wake-up Call: Small Business Development Center creates jobs"
Here is an excerpt:
University Park, Pa. — Have you ever been awakened in the middle of the night and had trouble falling asleep again? A SleepPhone could be music to your ears. Family physician Wei-Shin Lai invented the SleepPhone to help her fall asleep after late night calls from patients and hospitals. She wanted to listen to soothing sounds to relax, but could not find a pair of headphones that were comfortable to wear as she slept. She and her significant other, Jason Wolfe, solved the problem by creating headphones embedded in a fleece headband. After they launched a business to sell the SleepPhone, the pair realized they could benefit from the free assistance offered by the experts at the Penn State Small Business Development Center (SBDC).
The Pennsylvania SBDC (Small Business Development Center) in State College, PA Reports on the Success Story of "SleepPhones® Headphones: Pajamas for your ears"
Here is an excerpt:
In 2007, family physician Wei-Shin Lai, MD struggled with falling back to sleep after late night phone calls from patients and hospitals. She wanted to listen to soothing lullaby sounds to relax, but could not find a comfortable pair of headphones for sleeping. Jason Wolfe, her significant other and business partner, looked all over the Internet and could not find any soft headphones either. So Wei-Shin and Jason did what so many entrepreneurs do when they are beset with a problem: they solved it. They created headphones that could be worn comfortably during sleep out of fleece. It worked so well for Wei-Shin that she had more energy to do other things! Wei-Shin and Jason decided to start a company manufacturing SleepPhones in order to help other people sleep better.
Brittani Renaud Includes SleepPhones® Headphones in Her Article "Five Ways to Fall Asleep Faster" for Health Magazine's June 2009 Issue
Here is an excerpt:
Simple tricks that help you get a good night's sleep.
Poor sleep is nothing to yawn at — it takes a toll on everything from your job performance and sex life to overall health. And in women it's been associated with feelings of hostility, depression, and anger, as well as higher risks of diabetes and heart disease. Here, real ways to get the zzz's you need.
Harry Zimbler Writes About SleepPhones® Headphones in an Article Titled "Sleepless in State College?" for State College Magazine in October of 2008
Here is an excerpt:
As she made her way through her medical residency, Wei-Shin Lai had one problem: getting back to sleep after waking in the middle of the night. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, so Lai decided to create headphones that were comfortable and offered high-quality speakers.
CNN Money Writes About AcousticSheep's SleepPhones® Headphones in an Article Titled "Sleeping in Style"
Here is an excerpt:
Family doctor Wei-Shin Lai was happy to be available to patients during the evenings, but she had trouble falling back asleep after responding to late calls. When the headphones on the market proved to be too bulky to wear in bed, Dr. Lai developed a set that would allow her to listen to lulling music and rhythms throughout the night. The device features two thin speakers sewn into a stretchy polyester fleece headband that fits snuggly around the sleeper's head. With each purchase, the Bellefonte, Pa. company also includes a CD of specialized tracks meant to gently induce or interrupt one's sleep cycle.
Bellefonte Start-Up Company Helps Others Get Some Rest
Jennifer Thomas of the Centre Daily Times wrote about AcousticSheep and SleepPhones® headphones!
Here is an excerpt:
"They're pajamas for your ears — one local couple's invention to counter sleepless nights.
The Bellefonte-based start-up business AcousticSheep LLC is finding a growing interest in its SleepPhones, a handcrafted system to help people fall asleep without drugs, said company CEO Dr. Wei-Shin Lai."
A Look at Food Allergies: Frequently Asked Questions (Part 4/4)
FAQ:
Celiac Disease / Gluten sensitivity:
Anywhere from 1-5% of white people may have a problem with gluten sensitivity. The symptoms of gluten sensitivity vary widely and is a very complex topic that is being recognized much more often now. Gluten sensitivity is not a wheat allergy. A wheat allergy manifests differently, and you can even have both a wheat allergy and a gluten sensitivity.
Lactose Intolerance:
Many adults, especially black and Asian people are unable to tolerate a lot of milk products as adults. If they drink milk, they tend to have gas, bloating, cramps, and diarrhea. This is due to a lack of the lactase enzyme in their intestine which properly digests the lactose in milk. There is a temporary fix for this problem. Lactaid, which is a milk that has predigested lactose is one solution. But if someone really wants to eat ice cream or drink regular milk, Lactaid makes a pill that contains the lactase enzyme that can help for the one meal.
Egg allergy and the flu vaccine:
Most cases of egg allergies are mild. Unless there is a history of severe allergies, the flu vaccine is still recommended for people with egg allergies. I will most definitely be giving my own son the flu vaccine this season despite knowing that he's allergic to eggs, since his allergy is limited to some mild eczema.
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