According to CDC’s 2016 report, 1 in 3 of American adults don’t get enough sleep on a regular basis. People with sleeping disorders have their sleep duration less than 7 hours, while individuals from 18 to 60 years old need to sleep at least 7 hours to promote optimal well-being.
The lack of sleep leads to increased risk of developing adverse chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, obesity, mental distress. Resolving the issues related to lack of sleep (snoring, excessive daytime sleepiness) and developing good sleep habits may be the key to the prevention of some of the mentioned health conditions.
On September 14, 2019, Walgreens announced that millions of adults can take advantage of Walgreens Find Care platform for accessing new sleep solutions. This is the part of Walgreens commitment to help its customers to help to manage their chronic health conditions.
What is Walgreens Find Care and SmartSleep?
Walgreens Find Care is a digital platform launched by Walgreens in July of 2018. Its main goal is to connect customers to healthcare providers who have a partnership with Walgreens. This platform is available through the website and a mobile app for the convenience of the customers.
Now the platform makes it possible to use Philips SmartSleep solutions through the Walgreens mobile application. One of these solutions is SmartSleep Analyzer, the tool that makes it easier to diagnose the reason for unhealthy sleep and helps in proper sleep assessment. After identifying the possible reason for a sleeping disorder, the tool helps to connect to sleep products, solutions or guidance online.
Customers who use SmartSleep analyzer will receive feedback and insights based on their answers in a short questionnaire, and so-called “sleep challenges”. With the help of this tool, customers should easily understand their sleep habits and get a better understanding of how to achieve their personal goals related to healthy sleep.
However, the partnership with Philips is not limited by the app. On the Walgreens web site, customers will be able to order some solutions for better sleep from Philips. These include SmartSleep Wake-Up Light, SmartSleep Snoring Relief Band, SmartSleep Connected Sleep and SmartSleepDeep Sleep Headband.
SmartSleep Solutions
Each of the mentioned solutions has its purpose in resolving unhealthy sleep reasons. The Snoring Relief Band was designed to prevent patients from snoring, by sending gentle vibrations in case if the patient is sleeping on the back (positional-dependent back snoring is one of the most common conditions). However, it cannot be used if snoring is one of the sleep apnea (OSA) symptoms.
The SmartSleepDeep Sleep Headband is a product that helps in sleep assessment, especially for people who sleep less than 6 hours a day. According to Philips web site, the Headband can be used not only for monitoring the quality of sleep, but also for improving it by triggering audio tones during the third stage of deep sleep – “slow-wave sleep”.
SmartSleep Wake-Up Light and SmartSleep Connected Sleep app should be used together to adjust Wake-Up Light and make it easier to wake up. As our body reacts on the sunset and sunrise light, Philips decided to make Wake-Up Light one of the tools for better sleep and easier wake-ups.
Conclusion
Unhealthy sleep is a very common problem in modern society. Unfortunately, this issue is underestimated despite the fact it affects our lives and can lead to adverse medical conditions, which are easier to avoid than treat in the future.
Walgreens and Philips partnership made it more convenient for customers to get track of sleeping habits, get the assessment and fix sleep issues with special tools, thus making it easier to avoid an increased risk of developing chronic conditions.
