Samsung’s SleepSense must count as one of the stranger innovations at IFA 2015, Berlin, but as more products becomes part of the Internet of Things, we’re sure to see more like it. SleepSense is a personal sleep tracking sensor which Samsung believes can improve a user’s sleep quality, popping it under your pillow when you go to sleep. While you’re off nodding, the device analyses your heart and respiratory rates, as well as physical movement.

Samsung notes that each morning it compiles this data into a summary of the night’s sleep activity, and provides a ‘sleep score’ which is mapped against average data based on age. Users can use this information to analyse the quantity and quality of their sleep with the device’s mobile app. The ‘sleep score’ itself is based on the following insights:

• The time it took you to fall asleep and your total sleep time
• Your sleep efficiency, including the number of times you woke up and / or  got out of bed
• The percentage of time you spent in the REM (rapid eye movement) and deep sleep cycles

For those who often fall asleep in front of the telly, the SleepSense can turn it off once you doze off, if it’s a Samsung Smart TV, while one can also use Samsung’s app to control other devices such as thermostats, security cameras and lights. Samsung also believes the unit can determine the right time to wake up, based on data collated from your sleep stages, and will do so “gradually and peacefully”.

It should be interesting to compare how well the SleepSense tracks your sleep, since it is essentially a sensor that is not connected directly to your body. Certain smartbands, such as the Jawbone UP3, can track your sleeping patterns while at the same time monitoring your heart rate, providing an accurate reflection of the night’s activities. Whether the SleepSense will manage to do the same remains to be seen.

There are no details about the Samsung SleepSense’s availability in SA just yet.