Core77
e
- Topics
- Features
- Awards
- Careers
-
Firms
- Firms
- Search Firms;
- Firm Projects
- Forums
-
More...
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Advertise
- About
- Terms of Use
Core77 is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more
Mark Zuckerberg Designed a Box to Help His Wife Sleep Better
And it's surprisingly low-tech
By Alexandra Alexa - May 1, 2019
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been flexing his industrial design muscles with his latest project, a "sleep box" that he built for his wife and shared on Instagram over the weekend. "Being a mom is hard, and since we've had kids Priscilla has had a hard time sleeping through the night. She'll wake up and check the time on her phone to see if the kids might wake up soon, but then knowing the time stresses her out and she can't fall back asleep," he wrote. "As an engineer, building a device to help my partner sleep better is one of the best ways I can think of to express my love and gratitude."
The low-tech solution Zuckerberg came up with is a wooden box with a slight reveal at the bottom that emits a sliver of light between 6 and 7 in the morning. If she wakes up and doesn't see the light, she'll know it's too early and go back to sleep without having to look at her phone. If she wakes up and sees the light on, she'll know it's a decent time to get up, but it's dim enough to let her sleep in if that's what she needs. "So far this has worked better than I expected and she can now sleep through the night," Zuckerberg wrote.
Reactions ranged from calling the design "genius" to questioning it entirely, especially since it lacks the added functionality of many light alarm clocks that are already on the market. But we're kind of fascinated by this ultra-specific approach to a problem that, ironically, Zuckerberg's company fuels with addictive apps that too many of us turn to when insomnia strikes.
Zuckerberg explained that he decided to share his design in case anyone wants to develop it further. "A bunch of my friends have told me they'd want something like this, so I'm putting this out there in case another entrepreneur wants to run with this and build sleep boxes for more people!" At least one enthusiastic commenter (himself a new father) has taken him up on the challenge, claiming to have already registered the domain www.GetSleepBox.com and requested prototypes from a factory in China.
-
oFavorite
-
Q6Comment
-
&
Hiring Now See all industrial design jobs
-
Industrial Designer InternshipNew York, New York | Onsite or Remote PossiblequipNew -
Industrial DesignerHenderson, NevadaXtreme ManufacturingNov 30 -
Senior Industrial Designer.Melbourne, AustraliaWhistle Design Group Pty LtdNov 25 -
Creative Industrial DesignerFranklin, TennesseeSchneider ElectricNov 24 -
Sr. Industrial DesignerSan Francisco, CaliforniaPopSocketsNov 24
-
K1:1 | with Michael DiTulloA New Core77 video podcast series. Fresh interviews weekly. Subscribe on Youtube.
-
Hot On Coroflot
-
Design Jobs
Igor Sirotov
Christine Marie Serchia
K
{Welcome
Create a Core77 Account
Already have an account? Sign In
By creating a Core77 account you confirm that you accept the Terms of Use
K
Reset Password
Please enter your email and we will send an email to reset your password.
Mark Zuckerberg Designed a Box to Help His Wife Sleep Better
I honestly don’t know how he can sleep at night
I want to know who built the box. There is no end grain, so this must be some plywood with vaneer overlayed on one end. No visible fasteners. Is Zuck a decent carpenter too?
It looks way too clean to be a wrap or some kind of veneered plywood. I'm guessing it's solid wood and mitered all around.
Facebook has a very nice woodshop, actively run by woodcraft.
My first question was why the box?
I often think my wifes insomnia is due to her anxiety about not getting back to sleep. i.e. she clock watches all night. I don't know if this is a solution, because she complains about the Comcast boxes' blue light.