Neuroscientist designed and patented, RAPTbaby’s Smarter Sleep sound machine blends background tracks that support sleep with salient acoustic cues that facilitate the creation of language networks
NEW YORK, January 18, 2023 – Today RAPTbaby, the children’s division of RAPT Ventures, Inc. (RVI), is announcing its inaugural product, the Smarter Sleep sound machine. Smarter Sleep is the first product specifically designed to give parents the ability to support both sleep and the cognitive development that should occur in their sleeping baby’s brain. To provide both benefits, the RVI team composed a variety of soothing background tracks that induce sleep-promoting alpha and delta brain waves. Subtle, structured acoustic cues were then blended into these tracks to stimulate an infant’s efforts to identify the sounds that are used to build language networks.
RVI was co-founded by Dr. April Benasich, the country’s first endowed chair in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, to bring the power of neuroscience into the home and give consumers the ability to enhance brain performance for themselves, their families and their friends. Dr. Benasich’s impressive career and research on language development at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University – Newark have made her acutely aware of the benefits that high-quality auditory environments can bring to the foundational brain-building activity that occurs in the first year of life. Applying that knowledge to the infant products market, Dr. Benasich and the RAPTbaby team developed the Smarter Sleep.
“Many parents don’t realize that while babies are sleeping, parts of their brains are still listening for salient auditory cues that help build brain networks that affect how well they process language throughout their lives,” said Dr. Benasich. “Our goal was to take the sound machine, that is typically just used to promote sleep, and add an enriched supportive auditory environment that is more beneficial for a baby’s development.”
The sound machine’s innovative, patented design builds on the work of numerous other neuroscientists, including those studying the effects of white noise in animals, infant auditory processing during sleep and the impact of NICU environments on auditory processing. This research not only demonstrates the brain’s reliance on structured auditory input to establish language networks but also the potential for impaired language development among children exposed to less optimal auditory environments. Smarter Sleep ensures sleeping babies receive the specific acoustic input their brains need and expect, which is a benefit that other sound machines and less enriched environments generally fail to provide.
“It’s incredibly important to raise awareness of the critical impact that auditory environments have on a child’s brain development,” said Dr. Nina Kraus, Hugh Knowles Professor of Neurobiology, Communications Sciences and Otolaryngology at Northwestern University and author of Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World. “The Smarter Sleep sound machine is the perfect option for any parent who wants to make sure that, over the hours their baby sleeps, they are immersed in a cognitively beneficial environment that fosters vital interaction with the sleeping brain.”
The RAPTbaby Smarter Sleep sound machine will be available starting Jan. 18, 2023, for $59.99. Please visit RAPTbaby.com to order and for further information.
ABOUT RAPTBABY
RAPTbaby™ is RVI’s children’s division. Informed by decades of clinically validated research, we create products to support the development of young brains, with a focus on auditory processing and language formation. Our intent is to take cutting-edge developmental neuroscience from the lab to the nursery, putting it into the hands of parents and caregivers who can use our products to deliver cognitive benefits to the children in their care.
ABOUT RAPT VENTURES, INC.
RAPT Ventures, Inc. (“RVI”) was founded to bring the power of neuroscience into the home, giving individuals the ability to enhance brain performance for themselves and the people they love. Our trailblazing research and ingenuity leverage the power of the brain’s plasticity to develop, support and maintain a healthy brain from the outside in. Our products deliver highly tailored auditory experiences to create specific neuronal responses that support brain structure and the processes that determine cognitive performance across all stages of life. Their benefits range from creating a better physiological foundation for language processing in infants to strengthening deteriorating neural systems in older adults.