When it comes to going to sleep there seem to be two camps that people fall into: those who fall asleep the moment their head touches the pillow and those who stare at the ceiling willing themselves to drop off whilst their mind plays over all the ridiculous things they have done over their entire life. Not only is the Dodow Sleep Aid here to give you something other than the Artex to contemplate at night but it can also help you nod off by using breathing exercises to wind the body down, ready for sleep. The Dodow is a small disc that looks a little like a drinks coaster, it features three LED lights on the edge, on the back is the battery compartment, to access the batteries you turn a tiny dial (which, in my case, immediately dropped to the floor and rolled under the bed), maybe this could be attached or redesigned as you just don’t need this kind of hassle if you are sleep deprived. The Dodow is very easy to use; tap the unit once to set up an 8 minute session, twice for a 20 minute session and hold to switch off entirely, although after your chosen session is complete the Dodow will switch off automatically.

The way this sleep aid works is by projecting a blue light on to the ceiling with the idea being that you simply breathe in as the light brightens and grows and breathe out as it dulls and shrinks, the light begins by moving at a quicker pace and gradually reduces, guiding you from 11 down to 6 breaths per minute. This technique stimulates the sleep hormone and relaxes the body whilst the Cyan blue colour soothes you, unlike warm colours like red which can excite the brain due to the association with danger and heat. The idea behind the Dodow is great, however there are a few issues with the performance of the device; firstly the edge around the light isn’t clearly defined which means as the light slows down it becomes harder to follow which results in overthinking instead of relaxing. Another issue is it’s difficult to know where to place the device, I found if I put it on the bedside table the light was out of a comfortable eye-line, it needs to almost lay on your torso to project the light directly in front of you, this is not ideal. I tend to fall asleep on my side and there is no simple way to project the light on to the wall, and lastly the original breathing rate was too fast for me and it felt like it was raising my heart rate in the beginning. If you could rotate the angle of the LEDs to direct the light on the ceiling/wall and focus the beam to create a slightly sharper edge this would solve the initial issues, an added bonus would be to personalise the breathing patterns and improve the access system to the battery compartment. I really wanted to like the Dodow but there were just too many issues for it to work for me, however that’s not to say this will be completely unsuitable for everyone and we will look forward to seeing any future sleep aids produced by this company. RRP £49

Current Cheapest Price

2.5 out of 5

Pros

Carefully researched ideas

Straightforward to use

Discreet, compact design

Doesn’t interfere with partner’s sleep

Automatically switches off

Two programs to chose from

Cons

Difficult to direct the light in the right position

Poorly designed battery compartment

Cannot easily project onto walls for side sleepers

Breathing rate in the beginning was too fast for me

Edges of light not clearly defined makes it difficult to follow

Cannot personalise breathing rate