Wake up and say hello to Kello, a smart alarm clock developed in Hong Kong

Insomniacs who crave better quality sleep but find it difficult to change their lifestyles can now turn to Kello, a smart alarm clock developed by a Hong Kong-based startup.

Although Kello is described as a smart alarm clock, chief executive and co-founder Antoine Markarian said that it is more of a sleep trainer that aims to help users achieve better sleep through a host of habit-forming actions, including going to bed at a regular time, performing breathing exercises in bed and hitting the snooze button less in the mornings.

Markarian said that he came up with the idea of Kello after he ran a series of experiments on himself in a bid to become a better sleeper.

“I looked at studies [on sleep quality] to see what I was doing wrong, and I found that regular bedtimes work very well,” Markarian said. “This was what inspired me to fix sleep through lifestyle, and not by pills.

“It requires a lot of willpower to change sleep habits by yourself, but we’re trying to lower the entry barrier. It’s much more efficient to build a habit when you have a physical entity reminding you about it.”