4 Smart Gadgets That Can Immediately Upgrade Your Bedroom

The concept of building a smarter home using pieces of technology has become quite popular in the past decade. Be it smart lighting, improved surveillance, or speakers that listen and respond to your vocal queries — there are several must-have devices that transform your house into a smart home. Though it's easy to pick up and install smart home devices in places like your living room, where they are most likely to be noticed, we often overlook the importance of decking out our bedrooms with similarly useful technology.

On average, we spend about one-third of our lives sleeping, and it is in our best interest to maximize the comfort and efficiency of our naps. Practices like avoiding screen time before bed and installing blackout blinds to reduce noise and block light all help increase the quality of sleep. For the tech-savvy among us, there is a whole sea of smart home devices that can upgrade your bedroom. Based on user reviews and popularity, we have compiled a list of a few of these gadgets. You can read more about our methodology at the end. 

While minimizing screen time before bed can be challenging, picking up a smart speaker will perhaps give you one less reason to use your phone. No more fiddling around with the sleep timer on Spotify just to get distracted by an Instagram notification. A dedicated speaker has other major advantages, such as a better sound stage, voice commands with a built-in smart assistant, and, oftentimes, the ability to control other devices in your home.

The Amazon Echo Dot 5th Gen retails at $49 and is a smart speaker that is designed to fit in most places in your home, including the bedside table. It comes with Alexa, which is Amazon's smart assistant, capable of listening and responding to your vocal commands. The smart speaker has integrations with major music streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music and even supports Audible for those who prefer audiobooks to music.

You can create routines with the Echo Dot and have your lights turn off automatically with serene music playing right when it's time for sleep. There are a lot more unexpected uses for a smart speaker, including using it as an alarm or a personal trainer to get your day started. With over 140,000 reviews and an average rating of 4.6 stars, the Echo Dot is a crowd favorite. It comes in three colors and is plug-and-play ready — making it one of the easiest smart home devices to set up.

From TP-Link to Philips Hue, there is no shortage of options when shopping for smart lights. One of the major smart lighting brands is Govee, with many of its products offering a great bang for your buck. Introducing something as simple as a smart light bulb for the lampshade in your bedroom can bring a lot of convenience. You can then control the intensity or color of the lights using an app on your phone or through vocal commands. 

You can pick up a single Govee Smart Light Bulb for $12.99 or grab a four-pack for $34.99. For this price, you get a light bulb that works with Alexa and Google Assistant and features a full 16-million range of RGB colors. The Govee app unlocks several other features for its lighting products, like a music sync mode that reacts to the beat of any song you're playing. While being able to turn the lights on or off without having to get out of bed qualifies this as a smart device on its own — you can set routines or select presets to truly automate the lighting in your bedroom.

If you own more than one of these bulbs, you can configure them all in the app to work as a group — making them easier to control with a single command. The product has a 4.6-star rating on Amazon with over 13,000 user reviews. 

There is no joy greater than waking up to a phone that's fully charged and earbuds that don't blink orange or red when you take them out of the case. Some of the fastest charging phones take mere minutes of being plugged in to provide a day's worth of battery. If you own an iPhone, however, depending on 5-minute quick charges can be anxiety-inducing. Instead, you can leverage your iPhone's MagSafe functionality to wirelessly charge it through the night.

There are a lot of great options to choose from, like the Ugreen MagFlow 2-in-1 Wireless Charging Station on Amazon, which retails at $39 with a 4.4-star rating. I've been using one on my desk for several months, and the wireless charger is incredibly well-built. Your iPhone snaps onto the stand, which has an adjustable ball joint that makes it possible for you to tilt your device. Thanks to MagSafe, you can place your iPhone in landscape mode, which also enables the StandBy mode in iOS. 

The base of the charging station includes another coil designed to charge AirPods or any other Qi-enabled pair of earbuds. A notable downside of the Ugreen MagFlow 2-in-1 charging station is that it only supports wireless charging up to 7.5W — which can be quite slow if you're topping your phone up during the day. On a bedside table, catering to your iPhone and AirPods through the night, this product is a must-have.

SwitchBot makes a variety of home automation devices, like robot vacuums, keyless door locks, and Bluetooth button pushers. These gadgets can slowly stack up to bring together a smarter home experience. The SwitchBot Curtain 3 is a genius add-on that automates the curtains in your bedroom. 

It's a relatively small gadget that sits between the first and second curtain rings. Depending on the type of curtain design you have, the installation will vary slightly but is completely toolless for all kinds of setups. When installed and configured, the motor will automatically shut or open the curtain. You can control it with an app on your phone or using voice commands through Alexa or Google Assistant. You can automate the device based on the time of day, or depending on other conditions. 

If you're familiar with the process, this can add to your list of useful iOS shortcuts for your iPhone. The SwitchBot Curtain 3 is priced at $89 and comes in two variants, depending on your curtain design. The product has a 4-star rating with over 1,200 reviews on Amazon. Paired with blackout curtains, this gadget can improve your sleep when it's nighttime and wake you up with natural light during the early hours of the day.

Shopping for gadgets to elevate your smart home experience can be exciting. After all, there are countless options available across various product categories. Our goal for this list was to select and showcase some useful and affordable gadgets that fit well in the context of a bedroom. Products were selected based on their overall popularity and user reviews on Amazon. 

This list is not exhaustive, especially given how many kinds of smart devices you can add to your home. It's important to take into consideration feedback from verified buyers or refer to reviews carried out by experts in the industry. Outdated products or devices with privacy concerns are smart home devices you should avoid.