Every person sleeps differently. This is a well-accepted idea that experienced bedding manufacturers cater to in different ways, including by adopting new technology or hiring a team to handle tech innovations.
But every once in a while, a tech company enters the bedding industry, and the results can be quite impactful. Bryte is an example of a company whose founders have a deep background in technology but are making big moves in the bedding industry with cutting-edge technology.
Chief Innovation Officer Ely Tsern tells Bedding News Now that the company came together when a major life-changing event set Tsern on a new path. His son was diagnosed with leukemia and after years of treatments died at the young age of 8.
This made Tsern think hard about his work — which mostly involved computers and large servers — and he came out of the experience with a whole new mindset.
“I started to look for opportunities to make a difference for people,” he says. “I wasn’t going to cure cancer, but when a friend of mine approached me with an opportunity to bring technology and sleep together, I became very interested. I didn’t know anything about sleep but I immediately jumped in and met with the experts at Stanford and UC Berkeley and was ultimately introduced to Dr. Matt Walker who ran the Center for Human Sleep Studies at UC Berkeley.”
Sleep is dynamic, and mattresses on their own are a static product, so the Bryte team, working with Dr. Walker, set out on a mission to “completely revamp sleep and innovate and disrupt with a new platform.”
The market for technology built directly into a mattress is wide open in the bedding industry, and that’s the opportunity Bryte seized. Inside the Bryte Balance beds are 90 air coils called Balancers. There are also sensors in the bed that can detect a person’s pressure points across the body. The Balancers inflate and deflate in real time based on where the sleeper’s pressure points are, leading to a personalized sleep experience for each sleeper.
The first product was launched in 2019. After three generations of updates over the years, the technology has proven successful for the company.
“There hasn’t been as big of an innovation in sleep as this since Sleep Number entered the market over 38 years ago,” Tsern says. “Regardless of what people think of the company, they established the smart bed category and led the way for companies like Bryte. It’s incredibly exciting to see our customer’s response to our product, which is orders of magnitude better than other mattresses in the industry — it’s the ultimate personalized sleep experience.”
Bryte focuses on what it feels are the biggest factors for sleep quality: wake-ups due to discomfort, falling asleep and personalization. The medical-grade Balancer air coils are controlled with air pumps that are virtually silent. This was an important feature that Tsern said the company had to solve before even putting a product out on the market, because other companies offer air-based systems that use loud machines.
A small computer embedded inside the foot of the bed manages the whole experience, and each sleeper has individual control of the firmness and their comfort contour on their side of the bed. It’s connected to the Cloud, utilizes AI technology to analyze and personalize the experience and is operated through an easy-to-use app.
The latest innovation from the company is called BryteWaves, a technology that sends relaxation pulses through the bed that are synchronized to a library of sleep-inducing audio content, like gentle rain or soothing music. The effect helps ease stress and anxiety and can put a person in a deeper sleep.
“What we’ve done is coupled pressure-relieving waves across your body with the ability to sync those up to audio,” Tsern says. “Most of our users use it daily to go to sleep.
“We are driven by impacting what we call restorative sleep, which affects how restored you feel during the day. We have a built-in sleep tracker that analyzes your sleep,” Tsern says. “We are incredibly excited about the impact we’re making — our customers love it.”
Last month, the company launched a more affordable model, Bryte Balance, at $3,999, and two premium models, Bryte Balance PRO and PRO Conform that retail for $5,999. Both PRO models have a cooling fabric cover and premium comfort layer options that fit your preference from plush to firm. Both PRO models also have expanded software features built into the product, like enhanced contour personalization for different sleeping positions, and personalized AI-powered sleep concierge service. The company also now offers a premium adjustable base.
While the company primarily sells online through its website (Bryte.com), it also has a robust contract business with high-end hotels across the U.S. However, it’s now eyeing expansion into brick-and-mortar retail, as well as licensing out it technology to bedding manufacturers across the industry. Tsern says the company, led by Luke Kelly as CEO, has a few announcements coming up that are “extremely exciting.”
“We’re looking at retail partners, and we’re eyeing strategic opportunities to co-brand with mattress manufacturers,” he says. “We are open to talking to anyone interested. Please reach out at ely@bryte.com.”
