Ninug Band EEG

Measured, rather than inferred.

Every wrist wearable estimates your sleep from your pulse and how much you moved. This reads the electrical activity of the brain directly, which is what sleep is actually defined by — and it is worn on the head, because that is the only place the signal exists.

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The Ninug Band EEG, a soft knitted headband with dry electrodes and a detachable pod

The difference

Two bands, two different measurements.

The wristband reads the body: heart rate and its variability, movement, skin temperature, blood oxygen. This reads the brain. They are different hardware in different places, and neither is a version of the other.

Most people want the wrist one. This is for the nights where the question is what the sleep actually was, rather than roughly how it went.

The Ninug Band EEG worn on the forehead, with detail views of the dry electrodes and the charging contacts

What it reads

The signal, and what comes out of it.

  • ◆Sleep staging from brain activityDeep, light and REM read from the electrical signal rather than estimated from a pulse and an accelerometer
  • ◆Focus and drowsinessSlow eye movements, long closures and the drift that comes before somebody notices they have gone
  • ◆Jaw clenching and grindingMuscle activity at the temples, counted and timed across a night
  • ◆Closed-loop sound in deep sleepQuiet audio timed to the slow waves themselves. Sound only — there is no electrical current, and nothing is stimulated
  • ◆Stage-aware alarmWakes you out of light sleep inside a window you set, rather than at a fixed minute

Wellness and monitoring. Not cleared as a medical device, does not diagnose, and nothing here should be used to decide whether somebody needs care. If you suspect a sleep disorder, that is a conversation with a doctor and not with a wearable.

Inside it

Dry electrodes, and a pod that comes out.

No gel and no preparation — dry contacts against the forehead, which is the difference between a thing you wear every night and a thing you wear once. The electronics live in a pod that detaches, so the band is the part that goes in the wash and the expensive half never does.

The Ninug Band EEG shown exploded — knitted band, electrodes, battery, board and pod housing

Also

The rest of it.

  • ◆The raw signal is yoursExportable in full, not just the scores computed from it. A number you cannot check the working of is a number you are taking on faith
  • ◆Two sizesAdult, and a smaller one that fits a child
  • ◆The band is a consumable, the pod is notStraps wear out and are replaceable on their own
  • ◆Charging dock and cable includedContacts on the pod rather than a port

Pre-production. Specifications on this page describe what the band is being built to do, and will be corrected here as manufacturing settles rather than quietly left as they are.

Not sure which one you want?

If the question is how your days are going — load, recovery, activity, sleep timing — the wristband answers it and is easier to live with. If the question is what the sleep itself was made of, it has to be read at the head.

See the range →

Further reading

What the signal actually is.

What is EEG?

Read the guide →

Wearable EEG, and what it can and cannot do

Read the guide →