Amazon could be making its own smart pillow to combat sleep apnea – but I’m not convinced

Global retailer, Amazon has recently filed a patent to create its very own smart pillow. The patent describes an automated sleep assistant and base unit that’s physically connected to the pillow, and aimed at reducing snoring and treating obstructive sleep apnea.

While Amazon has its own line of smart home products, the brand has mainly stuck to smart speakers, displays and plugs. So, I was surprised to see that it had recently filed a patent to enter into the sleep market.

In the patent published by PatentGuru, it describes an automated sleep assistant that may comprise an audio input device for capturing sounds made by a person sleeping. The patent goes on to explain how the audio and data will be analysed to identify sleep patterns related to obstructive sleep apnea.

The Amazon statement goes on to say that it’ll be non-invasive and the pillow will have regions with one or more sensors and inflatable air bladders. When used with a base unit device that’s physically connected to the pillow, it can adjust the pillow to move sleepers into a better position and open their airways to stop or reduce snoring.

The concept of a smart pillow and smart sleep products is still new to the sleep market, but some brands are already looking into this or have created something already. For example, the Motion Pillow was announced at CES 2024, a smart pillow that uses AI and a Solution Box that sits on your bedside table and detects sounds of snoring before communicating with the pillow to change your sleep position.

Amazon’s patent sounds extremely similar to the concept and design of the Motion Pillow. As the patent says that the pillow will have inflatable elements and sensors, it doesn’t strike me as the most comfortable set-up, so I’m intrigued to see how this will be designed.

Instead, I think that rather than make a pillow, Amazon should look into a device that will sit under your current pillow, like a sleep tracker, and a separate hub that will ‘talk’ to each other and adjust accordingly. Again, this isn’t a new concept and it’s even already been done on a larger scale, as Eight Sleep has a full mattress set-up that does this – see our Eight Sleep Pod Pro mattress review for more details.

It’ll be interesting to see more of Amazon’s plans on this and if it’ll be an extension or added feature of its Alexa voice assistant, as the patent describes an automated sleep assistant. All I can say for now is that I want to know and see more of Amazon’s plans for its smart pillow.

As of writing, the patent hasn’t been approved so it’s unclear when a release date or price will be announced – if at all.