If your partner has an erratic sleeping schedule, an annoying alarm, or is a perpetual snoozer, you can understand how hard it can be to woken up several times during the night or the morning. Often time after being woken up early or in the middle of a deep sleep, it can be difficult to get back to sleep. Lark, which is launching at TechCrunch Disrupt today, promises to help couples sleep better in the same bed.
Lark’s flagship product, Lark Up, is a revolutionary silent waking system that wakes you silently and naturally. The system involves an iPhone app and a small band that you wear across your wrist while sleeping. You set the iPhone app to the time you need to wake up and the app will transform your phone into a night time alarm clock. The band includes a small device and sensor with blue tooth technology that will vibrate at the time you are supposed to wake up. Plus there’s no more jarring, loud alarms; so your boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, or husband won’t be woken up by your alarm.
Founded by Julia Ho, Lark has been working with a Harvard Medical School sleep expert, Dr. Jo Select, to test the app with students; and the app has been producing positive results. Not only are wearers of the device able to wake up from the vibrating technology, but their partners are reporting a better night’s sleep when their sleeping partner is using the vibrating device.
Besides offering a way for users to wake up up without waking up their partner, Lark says that the proprietary vibrating technology promises a more relaxing emergence from a deep slumber. You can pre-order Lark using the code ‘tc2010’ here. The device, which is manufactured in China and expected to ship early next year, costs $99.
Feedback and Q & A by expert judges Sean Parker, James Slavet, Greg Tseng, and Victoria Randsom. I’ve abbreviated their names, for brevity obviously.
SP: Is this a real product?
A: We fully plan on launching this company. In fact, we just did.
SP: Are you serious?
JS: What about the tech perspective?
A: This uses a different type of technology, a different type of vibration tech that wakes you up.
VR: How many people have sleep problems — what part of the problem is the wake up part?
A: Our first market is busy professional couples that wake up at different times. Once we’ve pinned that down, we’ll focusing on other disruptions of waking up. We’re going to build a platform on top of this to deal with other issues like snoring, the phone ringing in the middle of thie night, etc.
GT: Why is this called Lark?
A: [Ed note: I’m really impressed she actually has an answer] A lark is cheerful morning bird as well as someone who wakes up early as well as bird who woke up Romeo and Juliet. Which is fitting because our product is really about making realiopnships better.
PC: Is it heavy?
A: We took out all the parts that are heavy. So no.