There’s no other room in the house in which you’re likely to spend more time than the bedroom, yet most bedrooms remain relatively gadget-free zones. If the only tech in your boudoir is a computer or a TV, you’re missing out on a number of devices that can make your life simpler, healthier, and yes, more relaxing.

The Usual Suspects
Plenty of people still rely on alarm clocks to wake up, but it’s time for a high-tech upgrade. Perhaps the coolest replacement for the bedside clock radio is the Amazon Echo. Part Bluetooth speaker, part personal assistant, the Echo can tell you the time, set an alarm, make your grocery list, play your favorite song, and even turn on the lights, all via voice control. And because it hooks into your home Wi-Fi network, you don’t even need your phone on hand after the initial setup. After adding one to your room, it won’t take long before you start to wonder how you ever got along without it.

One of the lights you can control with the Amazon Echo is the Philips Hue Lux, a smart bulb that connects wirelessly to your smartphone or tablet. The Hue Lux offers almost the same exact functionality as the original Hue bulb we recommended last year, but sells for half the price. What’s the difference? Color. Lux bulbs are white-only, as opposed to the virtually limitless color palette offered by Hue. Because both bulbs work on the same bridge, you can mix and match them throughout your home, and the Lux bulbs are a good way to save some money where you don’t need color-changing lighting.

Chances are your bedroom is where your computer sleeps as well. The Apple iMac features a brilliant 5K Retina In-Plane Switching (IPS) display backed by a beefy Intel Core i5 processor and AMD R9 graphics. It’s the system to get if you perform a lot of tasks that require insane levels of visual detail, like graphics, photography, scientific analysis, and video. That means it’s more than capable of handling the latest games, or a day of Netflix in bed. And now Apple has made it more affordable to own one.

Getting Some Sleep
Without a doubt, the most important piece of furniture in a bedroom is the bed. And beds don’t get much more innovative than the Kingsdown Sleep Smart Intuitive. The Sleep Smart Intuitive is a connected mattress that automatically adjusts to your movement, position, and sleep habits, thanks to 21 air chambers on each side of the mattress, which are controlled in six zones. The mattress connects to a box underneath that controls the amount of air needed in these chambers automatically. It also tracks how well you sleep and delivers that information via Bluetooth to an app on your mobile device.

How do you keep your fancy connected mattress clean? The Dyson V6 Mattress is a battery-powered handheld vacuum cleaner with a specialty: beds. Dyson claims that all of our mattresses are covered in dust mites and dust mite feces, as well as our own skin cells, hair, and other microscopic refuse. Unfortunately, Dyson is right. As we sleep in our beds at night, we are surrounded by a micro universe of filth, dust, and allergens. Fortunately, the V6 Mattress can combat the micron-sized horrors with powerful suction, an assortment of attachments, and a hygienic-if-tiny dust receptacle. If you suffer from allergies, or you’re just a neat freak who appreciates Dyson’s design aesthetics, the V6 Mattress is definitely worth considering.

Monitoring your sleep is one thing, but actively improving your time in bed is a whole other ballgame. Plenty of activity trackers and sleep systems track how quickly you fall asleep, when you roll over in the night, and how many hours you sleep, but they leave it to you to make changes that will help you get to sleep quicker and wake up feeling more refreshed. The Withings Aura changes this setup. Instead of simply monitoring your sleep, it helps you fall asleep with white noise and a narrow red light spectrum that’s emitted at you while you’re dozing off. When it’s time to wake up, the Aura looks for the ideal time in a window that you set for your alarm, and slowly projects different light and sounds to ease you out of slumber.

If you find yourself breaking out a fan in the summer and a heater in the winter (or just leaving them both connected in the spring and fall), the Dyson Hot + Cool AM05 is the device for you. It’s a gorgeous appliance that does double-duty to bring you the best of both worlds: It’s a powerful fan when you’re hot, and provides fast, even heat distribution when you’re cold (an internal thermostat maintains the temperature between 33 and 99 degrees Fahrenheit). It’s safer and easier to clean than traditional options, costs approximately 30 percent less to heat a whole room than conventional fan heaters, and can lower energy bills by 20 percent if used with air conditioning.

Speaking of air conditioning, who can fall asleep in a room that’s hot and sticky? The home air conditioner has long been due for a makeover. Considering it lives in many windows for nearly half a year (or more, depending on where you live), there’s really no good explanation for the unattractive, inefficient boxes that define our summers. The Quirky Aros combines a beautiful design with a companion app that lets you control the window-mounted, 8,000 BTU air conditioner from anywhere.

It’s also nice to wake up in a room that isn’t so dry that your throat is scratchy and your lips are chapped. The Holmes Smart Humidifier is a whole-house humidifier with up to 2,500 square feet of coverage that connects to the WeMo app via Wi-Fi. This means you can turn it on and off even when you’re not home, set schedules, and receive push notifications with status updates about the machine, like when water is running low or when the wick filters need to be replaced.

Don’t Cut the Cord
Instead of reusing that bargain bin power strip yet again, breathe new life into old electronics using the Quirky Pivot Power Genius. The four-outlet power strip has a hinged design that lets you pivot each outlet, and it offers two Wi-Fi–connected outlets that you can control from an iOS or Android device. It offers an inexpensive way to control a couple of devices remotely, and its flexible design lets you place it in areas that won’t accommodate a traditional power strip.

If you don’t need a full power strip, you can still tap into the benefits of home automation using the Belkin WeMo Insight Switch. It connects to your Wi-Fi network so you can turn your devices on and off remotely using an iOS or Android device. It lets you create schedules for every day of the week, and it supports IFTTT (If This Then That) recipes. Belkin has even added power monitoring capabilities that tell you how long the outlet has been on each day, how much power you’re using, and what it’s costing you.

Every home should have a smoke detector. The Nest Protect is a combination smoke/carbon monoxide (CO) detector that uses a colored light ring and audible alerts to warn you of dangerous smoke and CO levels. Like the Nest Learning Thermostat, the Protect is artfully designed and connects to your home’s Wi-Fi, so you can keep a virtual eye on things while you’re away. The new, second-generation Nest Protect is smaller than the original, with a longer lifetime of up to ten years. It also features a brighter light ring, as well as the ability to test sensors and hush false alarms from your phone or tablet using the new Nest app.

You can also keep tabs on what’s happening while you’re away with the Icontrol Networks Piper nv. This is more than just a surveillance camera—it’s a security system and a Z-Wave home automation hub all rolled into one slick-looking device. Its 180-degree fish-eye lens and pan, tilt, and zoom capabilities provide a wide field of view, and integrated sensors let you know when somebody (or something) has entered your home or workplace and will trigger the camera to record video of the event. Moreover, the Piper’s deafening siren will likely scare off even the boldest of intruders.

Most bedrooms have a free closet or spare drawer to store devices that are important to have on hand, but might not get much use, like the Eton Blackout Buddy H2O. It’s a tiny, water-activated emergency light that’s a much safer alternative to candles or matches. Although you probably carry around a phone that does double-duty as a flashlight, you don’t want to worry about battery life in an emergency. The Blackout Buddy H20 provides plenty of light for at least three days, and it’s cheap enough that you won’t feel guilty buying one, even if you’re already pretty sure that your flashlight contains working batteries.

Of course, with too many stimulating gadgets in the bedroom, you run the risk of not being able to actually fall asleep. Thankfully, most of the devices mentioned here are focused on making the bedroom a more useful and tranquil space. So who knows? With the more bedroom-centric gadgets you have, you might be able to sleep better than ever.

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