Review: Somnee Smart Sleep Headband

I have struggled with insomnia for as long as I can remember. I’ve tried basically every sleep aid on the market, plus I need a sound machine, sleep mask, blackout curtain, and weighted blanket to even begin the process of trying to fall asleep. So I decided to try something new.

Before bed, on and off for the past several months, I've been wearing Somnee, a wearable sleep tech headband that aims to map the brain using EEG (electroencephalogram) sensors to deliver individualized therapeutic stimulation to help promote sleep.

The rechargeable headband charges nightly on a dock, featuring sticky hydrogel electrodes for the band that need to be replaced every few nights. Nightly, I wore the Somnee for 15 minutes, where my brain was “mapped” using those EEG sensors and Somnee’s algorithms to give a 15-minute personalized therapeutic stimulation (specifically, tACs, or transcranial alternating current stimulation) session at bedtime.

Photograph: Molly Higgins

Basically, constant, very low electrical currents (1 milliampere at 5 to 10 hertz) deliver stimulations to the brain via hydrogel electrodes on my forehead to evoke sleepiness and promote healthier sleep at night. Somnee claims the stimulation is personalized in real time, responding and shifting based on my own brain’s rhythms, in order to make the brain optimal for a restful night’s sleep. The wearable tech is connected to an app (subscription required, see below), where you can monitor the “phase” of the session you’re in and view session reports, log your sleep journal, and track sleep trends over time.

Generally, I found myself falling asleep sooner on nights I used the device, but not necessarily staying soundly asleep all night. I’m skeptical of just how personalized the electrical stimulation sessions are, but Somnee was successful in getting me to fall asleep. Although maybe not in the way the company intended. Most of all, I found that Somnee was a great way to improve my sleep hygiene—meaning, staying consistent with a pre-bedtime routine and enacting wind-down practices to regulate the body to be ready for sleep.

“Neural Synchrony”

Photograph: Molly Higgins

Somnee uses sensors and algorithms to get a general map of your brain and delivers a 15-minute, personalized electrical stimulation session. The same noninvasive electrical stimulation technique is used for everything from targeted muscle recovery to more general disorders like anxiety. The device’s stimulation reacts in real time to each individual’s brain rhythms to optimally balance “sleep inertia, duration, and depth,” according to Somnee’s website.

The connected app also tracks usage over time, going in phases. The first happens over a week, where the Somnee “learns” about your brain by mapping your unique brain rhythms. The personalization phase happens over the next two weeks, where the device homes in on your individual patterns and creates more personalized before-bed sessions. The last adaptive phase happens over time as you continue to wear it, where the device continues ongoing brain rhythm maintenance and adapts to your brain as needed to optimize sleep-readiness.

After each session, you’re given a score rating your sleep readiness—my score was often 75 or over (out of 100), although the metrics for measuring these qualities were mostly unclear. There’s also an in-app sleep journal where you rate things like feelings and anxiety upon waking and general sleep quality overnight, and Somnee will consolidate your answers to show trends over time.

A Win Is a Win

Photograph: Molly Higgins

The device costs $429 initially, which includes the headband, supplies like the docking station and cord, a year's worth of electrodes, and an annual membership subscription, which is required to use the app. People can also opt for the monthly subscription version instead, which is $299 initially for the device and $18 per month for the subscription.

When you get the Somnee sleep headband, you need to set it on its wireless charging dock to charge every day before use. This was the biggest hurdle for me in remembering to wear it, as it was always charging on the other side of my room, away from my bed. A removable flex clip attaches to the band and acts as the conduit for the sticky hydrogel electrodes. The app even has timer notifications to remind you when the electrodes need replacing, which is about every three nights.

The band is adjustable—you’ll want to make sure it isn’t too tight that it leaves marks, or too loose that the electrodes aren’t making full contact with the skin. You also have to make sure your forehead is dry and clean—meaning no makeup or lotion is present. (This was also one of the biggest hurdles for me. As a woman in her early thirties, going to bed without moisturizer on my forehead is akin to walking out of the house without pants.)

Courtesy of Molly Higgins

Courtesy of Molly Higgins

You turn it on by pressing a button on the bottom of the headband, and the session starts with a 30-second neural reading to find your brain’s pre-stimulation “baseline.” Then it moves into the stimulation session, which lasts for the remaining 15 minutes before the minute-long post-stim baseline, where you’re encouraged to keep your eyes closed until the music ends while your post-session patterns are analyzed and recorded.

During the sessions, I felt a light tingling on my forehead and saw yellowish light pulses underneath my eyelids. Although the tingling was never painful, sometimes it would become a bit more intense and feel like very small shocks. The sensation and slight visual light pulsations can’t be seen from the outside, so it’s almost impossible to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced it.

The stimulation session is meant to “enhance sleep conducive activities in the brain” by reducing brain chatter and “sleep blocking activities” in the brain, according to Somnee. The default noise while this is happening is a super soothing meditation audio, but there’s also a more general “relaxation” audio and ocean wave choices that you can change in-app. You can also adjust sound volume and stimulation intensity.

During the first week I used Somnee, I got red marks from the electrodes, which turned into a bright red dot in the center of my forehead that took well over a week to go away. I took a break for nearly a month, adjusting settings and loosening the headband, and I didn’t have the problem again. Once the session is done, make sure you remove the device before falling asleep to avoid prolonged exposure.

Photograph: Molly Higgins

Overall, I noticed that I was able to fall asleep more easily and there was definitely less chatter in my brain, although I still woke up in the middle of the night like before, more often than I didn’t. I’ve come to think of the Somnee as giving a sort of Pavlovian effect: As I was testing, my brain and body began to associate wearing the device with winding down for bed.

For me, the biggest takeaway from wearing Somnee was the importance of sleep hygiene, a practice that helps regulate our systems and keep our circadian rhythms healthy. “Going to bed at the same time each night will train your brain to learn when it’s time to sleep. Watching screens can disrupt those cues,” says Ian M. McDonough, associate professor of psychology at Binghamton University.

Somnee has a credible team of researchers and doctors behind the tech, but they used a relatively small sample size for conducting tests, with only “at least” two sleep sessions, one of which was a placebo, sleeping without the stimulation, which can skew results of clinical studies. I’m still a little skeptical about the ability to scientifically measure and monitor brain activity with the small electrodes feeding into an app database, and I still have questions about how well the frequencies are “personalized” and are able to adapt over time depending on our brains.

However, since I couldn’t use or play on my blue-light-emitting phone while the app ran for 15 minutes, I only listened to Somnee’s ambient sounds and lay in the dark every night before bed. This alone was just a great way to more naturally signal to my body that it was time to sleep. After enacting this wind-down routine repetitively for weeks, my body was more often ready to snooze. This isn’t exactly Somnee’s scientific mission, but this device was generally helpful in establishing better sleep hygiene, which improved my sleep overall. So I guess a win is a win?