Society generally views health through the lens of physical health, but our mental health can be just as important. This is especially the case right now, where the challenges brought on by the global pandemic are constantly putting our minds to the test.

However, technology can lend a helping hand in many ways by providing people with the ability to take ownership of their overall health and wellbeing.

There’s a chance that you’re already using wellness tech to some extent — whether that’s a Fitbit to track your daily steps or a meditation app to relax. As it turns out, there’s no shortage of wellness tech to choose from.

Here’s some of my top wellness technologies of 2020 so far:

Headspace

Headspace is a mobile app that uses mindfulness and meditation to help you perform at your best each day.

Whether you’re looking to find a place of calm, keep your mind fit or reduce stress, the app has hundreds of themed mindfulness and meditation sessions to choose from.

The company is on a mission to improve the health and happiness of the world. And it looks like it’s well on its way, with millions of users in more than 190 countries

SAD lamps

Despite the name, SAD lamps actually make you feel happier by boosting sleep and helping to fight depression.

SAD actually stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder, which is a type of depression that many people experience in a seasonal pattern each year. While there’s not an exact cause, many people attribute their symptoms to the dark and cold weather brought by winter — but some people also experience SAD during the summer.
SAD lamps produce a very bright light that mimics sunlight which tends to be lacking at certain times of the year. It’s thought that the light encourages your brain to produce serotonin, which is the hormone that affects your mood, while also reducing the production of melatonin which makes you feel sleepy and tired.

Deep sleep headband

For anyone who has had trouble sleeping lately, Philips has created its next-generation Deep Sleep Headband that uses sensors to monitor brain activity and detect deep sleep, while playing quiet tones to improve the quality of your slumber.

Philips says that during the night our bodies cycle through different stages of sleep: rapid-eye movement (or REM), and non-REM sleep, which has three stages. When your body is in the third stage of non-REM – aka deep sleep – your heartbeat and breathing slow to their lowest levels and muscles relax. This is the most restorative stage of sleep often called “slow wave sleep”. It’s during this “wave” that the algorithm triggers quiet audio tones to boost these slow waves, which contributes to a much better night’s sleep.

The headband has been designed to help people who typically sleep less than seven hours a night improve their sleep quality, boost alertness, and reduce sleepiness throughout the day.