Ensuring ‘Good Sleep’ Throughout the Night: The Collaboration of Samsung’s Air Conditioners and Wearables

The Samsung Bespoke AI WindFree™ Air Conditioners feature a ‘Good Sleep’ mode that promotes restful sleep by automatically adjusting the temperature according to different sleep stages. This mode has been recently upgraded to allow users to connect their air conditioners with their Galaxy Watch series and Galaxy Ring, allowing ‘Good Sleep’ mode to be automatically activated when they fall asleep.^[1]

The Effect of Temperature on Good Sleep

Ambient temperature plays a crucial role in sleep quality. Waking up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat or shivering due to the cold is a common and relatable experience for many people. This year, due to global warming, various regions across the globe experience unusual temperature patterns, with nights growing even warmer relative to days. As a result, numerous individuals struggled to get quality sleep, negatively impacting their daily routines and overall mood. Based on this observation, Samsung decided to develop a mode on its air conditioners to enable more suitable sleeping temperatures so that people get better sleep during the night.

The key insight behind this mode is that the optimal temperature for sleep isn’t consistent throughout the night. This is why although many set their air conditioner to the ‘optimal’ temperature before going to bed, their sleep still gets interrupted. It varies according to the sleep stage a person is at – whether a person is falling asleep, in deep sleep, or waking from sleep. The team, in 2015, partnered with Kyunghee University to find the optimal temperature for each sleep stage, and develop an adequate algorithm for the air conditioner.

How it Functions

The ‘Good Sleep’ cycle adjusts the indoor temperature at each of the 5 stages of sleep – wake, REM (Rapid eye movement), and 3 stages of NREM (Non-rapid eye movement sleep). Each stage of sleep includes variations in brain wave patterns, eye movements, and body temperature. First, when a person falls asleep, temperature is quickly lowered within 5 minutes to immediately create pleasant environment. The temperature is kept low consistently during the next 90 minutes to facilitate deeper sleep. Starting from 90 minutes, the air conditioner increases the temperature to prepare for the deeper stages of sleep – N2 and N3. During these stages, the external environment should be warmer as body temperature and blood pressure fall the most. Temperature is increased by up to two degrees above target level to prevent awakening due to cold sensation.

Throughout the eight-hour sleep cycle, alternating periods of lighter REM sleep and deeper NREM sleep occur. The ‘Good Sleep’ mode continually modifies the temperature throughout the night, adjusting it by approximately three times. Approaching the end of one’s sleep cycle, temperature is kept high, but gentle wind is blown to create a refreshing atmosphere.

Algorithm for Good Sleep Mode, under condition of Target temperature 24°C

In Bespoke AI WindFree™ Air Conditioners, ‘Good Sleep’ mode works on WindFree™ mode while for normal models, air is blown out via Fast Cooling to meet the target temperature.

Automation with Galaxy Wearables

By connecting the air conditioner with the Galaxy Watch series or Galaxy Ring^[2] via SmartThings, users can seamlessly enjoy the benefits of the ‘Good Sleep’ mode without requiring manual adjustments via remotes. Once configured, whenever the wearable detects that the user has begun sleeping, it initiates the ‘Good Sleep’ mode accordingly. If the air conditioner was previously turned off, it will be switched on at the appropriate target temperature for ‘Good Sleep’. Alternatively, if it is already running but at too cold a temperature, it will adapt to a more comfortable sleeping temperature.

Samsung first attempted this connection back in 2018, before wearables had developed into the steady market of today. Members of the product planning team and software team pioneered the collaboration of wearables and home appliances. However, it was only in 2023 when this service properly became a feature. By then, the wearable market itself had grown, and it had matured enough that users even wore the devices to bed. Kyungju Lee, who took part in the project 6 years ago and now leads product planning for Room Air Conditioners, says, “We could see just by looking at friends and family around us, that the interest people had in the quality of their sleep had increased immensely. We felt that we needed to re-launch the feature we’d attempted in 2018. The right timing had come.”

For more details on the Bespoke AI WindFree™ air conditioners, visit https://www.samsung.com/sg/air-conditioners/windfree/

^{[1] Available for Room Air Conditioners – AR**B******, AR**C******, AR**D******, AR**F****** with Wi-Fi. Requires mobile phones above Galaxy S22, and wearable devices above Galaxy Watch4 series or Galaxy Ring. Must download SmartThings/Wearable/Samsung Health apps available on Android and iOS devices. A Wi-Fi connection and a Samsung account are required. Devices must be signed in with the same Samsung account.}

^{[2] Possible through models above Galaxy Watch4 series and Galaxy Ring}