The effects of our endless screen time and doomscrolling have deprived many of us of sleep. You can also find a plethora of sleep trackers that just leave you with a morning report and nothing more than that. There are various other types of gadgets to tackle sleep problems, but most of them rely on sound to do so. An Indian sleep-science startup, formerly known as InnerGize, is changing that perception with DUSQ, a behind-the-ear wearable that tracks your nervous system through the night and corrects sleep disruptions in real time using gentle vagal and vestibular nerve stimulation to keep you asleep.
The maker says your body experiences 20 to 30 hidden “stress surges” (micro-arousals) a night that fragment your deep sleep cycles without fully waking you up. DUSQ catches these autonomic spikes in real time and acts accordingly to pull you back into deep sleep before you wake up.
It tracks sleep disturbances via EDA (electrodermal activity), a direct measure of your nervous system’s activation state. When it detects a disruption, it delivers gentle vagal and vestibular nerve stimulation to push you back into deeper sleep. It does not run the same program all night; electric stimulation is adjusted based on what your body is actually doing.
This 12-gram device is worn behind the ear, which is the thinnest skin on the body where neural pathways are closest to the surface. You have to wear it for 2 to 3 hours before sleep to start. In this period, it initiates a calming effect on a stressed nervous system so you can fall asleep with ease. Its position will not interfere with the pillow or disturb your sleeping position. Being lightweight and slip-resistant, it is designed to be used while sleeping, so you will literally forget about it after some time.
DUSQ uses a medical-grade adhesive patch that fits precisely on the mastoid junction behind the ear. The patch stays on throughout the night and can be peeled off easily in the morning. Each patch lasts one week, as it comes with seven adhesive layers that you can peel after use.
This sleep-aid wearable comes with a companion app that acts as the central control unit for sleep regulation. It not only gives you a morning score but helps you determine how your body responded to real-time neural stimulation and environmental stressors throughout the night.
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DUSQ is currently seeking crowd-funding through Kickstarter. It has had a successful run, amassing over $1 million in funding, with three days still to go at the time of writing. If you wish to own one, you can pre-book one for as little as $349. Price includes DUSQ Sleep Regulation Device, 3-month patch supply, and 1-year app subscription.
The subscription unlocks special features like overnight tracking and sensing, automatic closed-loop stimulation (the sympathetic surge detection loop), sleep scoring, historical data and insights, and firmware updates. But even after the subscription expires, you can continue to take DUSQ stimulation sessions.
