Start-Up Makes Sleep Device to Combat Night Terror

Lully Sleep Guardian - Device for Sleep Disorder

Adevice has been developed for sleepless parents with kids troubled by frightening spells of night terror. According to Varun Boriah, it seems like a temper tantrum wherein the child sleeps through the complete episode and till now there had been no solution. He had informed CNBC that his solution is Lully, which is a start-up, he had co-founded with a general surgeon, Dr Andy Rink.

Both belong to the Stanford’s medical device design entrepreneurship program and some of Rink’s relative had been the victims of night terrors. Boriah had mentioned that they had seen how several parents as well as children had suffered from this common sleep disorder and desired to design a secured and simple solution. The first product of Lully is the Lully Sleep Guardian, which is a Bluetooth enabled device which the parents can plug in and slip beneath the mattress of the child. On using the sleep guardian, parents tend to input the history of the child of night terrors in the Lully app.

Vibrations Blocks Night Terror

When the system is up and active, the device tends to start learning the child’s sleep patterns and uses a proprietary procedure to define the best moment to deliver a vibration just before a night terror episode. The vibrations tend to interrupt the sleep cycle of the child and according to the company blocks night terror. According to the Lully, parents have seen results within the first week of use and incidents are cut by almost 80% after a month.

The company seems to have two models of Sleep Guardian, one a basic version priced at $219 and a model with added features like access to sleep experts at $199. President of Corum Group, Nat Burgess, a firm that is involved in software mergers as well as acquisitions, had queried if Lully would need FDA approval. As per Boriah, the device would not be treating what the FDA considers, a medical condition and hence the agency does not seem to recognize the same as a medical device or a regulated product.

Lully is not the only sleep monitoring device. Besides them, there are others comprising of Owlet Baby, Sproutling, Sleep Number Kids and Mimo. But Boriah claims that Lully seems to be the only product which is programmed to battle night terrors.

Lully – Filed for U.S./International Patents

Alicia Syrett, New York Angels board member speculates on what would prevent competitors from adding similar features to their products. CNBC had been informed by Boriah that Lully had filed for U.S. as well as international patents. He had also informed that they do have a proprietary algorithm which is held as trade secret. He had mentioned that his team directed a six-month clinical research at the Stanford Sleep Centre and stated that Lully’s 10,000 nights of testing together with 15 test subjects is a benefit over competitors.

He added that in this study, the Lully Sleep Guardian was observed to have stopped 8 out of 10 night terrors in children in the age group of 2 to 9. He also mentioned to CNBC that his company had sold more than 1,200 units though the team did not disclose specifics concerning the revenue or profitability.

 The start-up also intends to develop more products which would address other disorders of sleep. With headquarters at San Francisco, Lully has raised $2.2 million since its launch in 2014 and the start-up has been supported by Y Combinator, Stanford-StartX Fund, Two Sigma Ventures together with Highway1.