Bags Instead of Boxes

Although we recycle all corrugated boxes, paperboard boxes, plastic bottles, cans, and mixed paper, not everyone lives in a municipality that makes it easy to do so. Many people are not able to recycle corrugated cardboard. And even if they can, many are not in the habit of reusing and recycling. So we decided to reduce in the first place. We ended up choosing Tyvek and recycled manila envelopes over boxes because of many reasons.

1. SleepPhones are soft and do not require padding for protection during shipping.
2. Boxes are too big for some mailboxes, like those for apartments. 
3. Boxes are more easily lost because they are separated from the rest of the mail during delivery.
   
4. Envelopes take up less space in the landfill.
5. Envelopes weigh less than boxes. They are cheaper to ship.
6. Because they weigh less than boxes, it requires less gas to transport for the post office.
7. Tyvek envelopes can be recycled.
8. Manila envelopes that we use are already from recycled materials and can be further recycled in some places under mixed office paper.
   

When we started out, we used nice tuck mailer boxes to ship SleepPhones. There was a flap that could be tucked in to close the box, so it didn't require tape to be sealed. The thought was that if opened carefully, the boxes could be reused by the customer for various things. But after realizing that our reusable boxes were just being thrown out by most people, we figured that we would save landfill space by using minimal packaging instead.

If you place a large order from us, then we may ship your SleepPhones using a box. We often keep the nicer boxes we get from our suppliers for reuse in these situations. Therefore, you may get a box labeled Staples, Amazon, or some other company, but it is actually from us. Some people may think that we are being cheap, but we think we are practicing an ecologically sustainable concept. It takes our precious time and basement space to sort and store these boxes, but we do so because we want to reuse them. This type of conservation not only helps our bottom line (which helps our customers), but makes the world a slightly better place for future generations.

SleepPhones QR Code

Google sent us an envelope today. Apparently we're a favorite place
on Google! We have our own QR code now. Unfortunately, that directs
the customer to our basement, which is not open to the public.
Here's the code for our website instead.

Okay. If you're like me, you're wondering what a QR code is. It stands for Quick Response and is also called a 2D bar code. It works like a bar code, but it can encode 7,089 numbers as opposed to 12 numbers in a standard UPC. It was developed in Japan and so can also encode Kanji, in addition to binary, letters, some symbols, and numbers. It's routinely used in Japan as a replacement for the UPC. An application on my iPhone is able to read it in real-time and take me to the specified webpage. Rock bands and some cutting edge businesses use it as a marketing ploy. Hmm... I wonder what we can do with it.

3 Days Off!

For the holidays, we took 3 days off from mailing out SleepPhones. It was very relaxing to spend some time with family and friends. Here is a picture of a baby with the sheep.

I took lots of naps. We gave and received great presents. Now, it's back to work.

First Order from Cambodia

A week ago, we got our first order from Cambodia! So I did some research and found that our order had come from the capitol city, Phnom Penh. Most Cambodians are Buddhist of the Khmer ethnicity, and they speak Khmer. It borders Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. While it currently imports its petroleum, oil has apparently been found there and will soon be extracted. The government is a liberal democracy under a constitutional monarchy, like the UK. For some reason, Lonely Planet says that there are only 20 psychiatrist in Cambodia. Recently, China gave Cambodia 1.2 billion dollars to deport 20 Muslim asylum-seekers sought by China in connection with violent anti-government protests. Despite its beautiful warm coastline, it doesn't attract as many tourists as some of its neighbors. I might like to visit some of the deserted coastal islands... but  there might be landmines. Oh well.

Sheep Models RunPhones Onesie

To Auntie Kim, Thank you for the new onesie! It fits much better than the other onesie, and it's soft and organic. The design is perfect! Love, SleepPhones Sheep.

Check out the designer's website. WestMama on Etsy
Sheep wears the RunPhones logo onesie. RunPhones will be ready in February!

Sheep Travels

We finally got our little guy! Isn't he the cutest stuffed sheep ever?

He's been traveling everywhere with us! He even helped us drive our giant rolls of fabric around!

Lavender Color and Scent

One might ask about our obsession with lavender, both the color and the plant. We have many pounds of dried lavender buds, lavender essential oil, lavender soap, a lavender stuffed lamb, lavender-colored clothes, and many rolls of lavender fabric.

The lavender color is a very peaceful pastel. So we decided to play it up in our marketing. A brand's color is extremely important. Colors have many implications. For example, red implies boldness. Blue is peaceful. Yellow and black are used for warnings and calling attention to things. Pink is very feminine. We chose lavender and gray as our company colors. Lavender is a delicate soft color appealing more to women. Gray is a gender-neutral soft quiet color. Both are appropriate for a company concerned about sleep.

The sense of smell is one of the most subtle ways to entice customers. Smells are associated with good and bad things in life. Cookies associated with the holidays remind you of good times with family. Balsam and spruce trees make me think of a crisp winter. Sour milk makes me sick. Even though the sense of smell is not as obvious as vision or hearing, its is often more memorable and triggers a deeper emotional response. Anyone in marketing knows how important emotions are. Lavender is slightly floral and sweet with a sharpness of camphor that opens up the nose. The higher the quality of the lavender, the less the sharpness, and the more floral. It is commonly used in aromatherapy for relaxation. Most people enjoy the subtle scent of lavender, even those who don't like floral potpourri and perfumes. It makes me think of pine sap and faint flowers, very relaxing.

We have two employees making our lavender sachets part-time. One is an honors college student who stuffs the sachets to pay for her rent and to earn extra spending money. The other is a high school student, and this is her first job. Her mother is using it as an opportunity to teach her the value of money.

SleepPhones Review 4.5/5.0 on thinkmac.net

SleepPhones were reviewed on thinkmac.net. He gave us a 4.5 out of 5.0 apples! The reviewer actually resides in Blacksburg, VA, my home town, but we did not know each other before.

Biggest Order Ever

At 8pm on December 17th, SleepPhones received its biggest individual order ever. Someone in California order a dozen SleepPhones! All in tins with sachets, at that. I'm going to have to order more tins soon. Plus, the college student who packs sachets is almost done with finals, so she'll have to make more sachets soon. We're running low on those. We're very excited that someone ordered so many! We speculate that they will be given out as gifts.

Big orders definitely receive some special treatment from us. We'll automatically upgrade certain things. For example, we'll upgrade the shipping or packaging. We used to include an extra sachet, but then we found out (the hard way) that some people really don't like lavender. The holiday rush still has not slowed down, so I better get back to packing orders. I've taken all of next week off from my day-job to work on last minute orders and sending out gifts to my relatives. In the meantime, I've been a bit sleep-deprived, ironically, in a good way.

Lavender and Gray Colors Are Coming Back!

Polartec® has finished production of our lavender and gray color fabrics! They are both the recycled soda bottle with spandex fleece. We will start production of SleepPhones in those colors in January, to be ready by mid-February. Some customers have been asking for those colors back, so we're working on it!

Holiday Sales

Tonight was close to another record breaking night. 40 minutes to go... but I don't think we'll break any records tonight. We've certainly come a long way since we started making the first SleepPhones prototypes three years ago. Here was the logo I had come up with at first. It was the best we could do with our budget at the time. It doesn't quite compare with our current logo, which is the cutest cartoon sheep ever.

Sheep Travels

Sheep enjoys Christmas music by Callanish Band at the church.

Corporate Responsibility - Social

SleepPhones are Socially Responsible

• We buy as many components from US manufacturers as possible.
  
• Sewing, assembly, quality control, and shipping of SleepPhones are all done in Pennsylvania.
  
• Our employees work from home, which allows them to be with their family and work whenever they want.
  
• We pay our employees double the minimum wage.
  
• We have donated to the National Sleep Foundation, Listen & Learn: Music for a Different Kind of Audience, Autism Speaks, and National Public Radio.
  
• We sponsor various informative podcasts.
  

Corporate Responsibility - Environmental

SleepPhones are Green.

• The fleece headband is made of 88% recycled plastic bottles. The manufacturing of the fleece is done by Polartec® in Massachusetts then shipped directly to Pennsylvania via FedEx ground.
  
• All of the electronics in the SleepPhones are RoHS compliant, which means that they are free of lead. They can be safely disposed.
  
• SleepPhones headquarters is powered by 100% wind energy.
  
• Streamlined operations in order to reduce waste. For example, the instruction booklets are printed two at a time so that there is minimal paper waste.
  
• Ink and toner cartridges are recycled.
  
• The SleepPhones packaging was carefully chosen to minimize materials and weight which uses less fuel to transport. We do not use packing peanuts. We reuse plastic balloons, bubbles, and boxes from our suppliers whenever possible.
  
• Almost all manufacturing waste is recycled (cardboard, office paper) or reused (leftover fabric).
  
• We decided to ship via USPS not only to save both the customer and us money, but also because the postal carrier has to make a trip to your work or residence anyway. FedEx, UPS, and DHL need to use gasoline getting the package to you.
  
• Computers are on a smart strip so all peripherals automatically turn off when the computer is not on.
  
• Our employees work from home, so they do not have to drive to and from work every day. Nor do they have to drive their kids to day care.
  
• 
  

Here is how you can help!

• Reuse as many of the packaging parts as possible.
  
• If your SleepPhones came in a corrugated cardboard box, please reuse and recycle your box.
  
• If your SleepPhones came in a Tyvek® envelope, please recycle the envelope! For Small Quantities (less than 25 envelopes), turn any Tyvek® envelope inside out, so the unprinted white surface shows on the outside. Stuff the inside-out Tyvek® envelope with other used Tyvek® envelopes for recycling. Address and mail the envelope to: Tyvek® Recycle, Attn. Shirley B. Wright, 2400 Elliham Avenue #A, Richmond, VA 23237. More information on recycling Tyvek
  

Gabriel Slate's Tech Report - Kron 4 News

SleepPhones were on Gabe Slate's Tech Report last night!
Watch the clip for New Gadgets Could Make Great Gifts for the Holidays.


Here is the permanent link to the video.

Podcast Advertising

We decided to support a few really cool podcasts. One is The Classic Tales where a literary piece is read each week. The other is Escape Pod, a weekly science fiction podcast. We sponsored the latest episode of The Classic Tales where B.J. Harrison performs The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens (Episode 136). The three-part story is about Tackleton, a toymaker who hated children. And if a Cricket was ever heard tittering near his hearth, he'd crush it, and relish the jam on the heel of his boot. But for some gentler hearts,the Cricket is a prophet that nudges their minds to brighter days.

World of Warcraft

If the World of Warcraft (WoW insider) people win the games category of PodCastAwards, then they will be giving away free SleepPhone to a listener. Good luck to the gamers!

Twitter Full Night Sleep Experience Giveaway Ending!

The Twitter Giveaway Grand Prize is coming up soon! We're about 80 twitter followers away from giving away a pair of SleepPhones and a pre-loaded MP3 player. Enter soon!

Leo Laporte Wears SleepPhones

We sent Leo Laporte some SleepPhones and he loved them! Episode 972 The Giz Wiz can be watched online!

Herbal Sleep Medicines - Be Careful!

Many people believe that herbal medications are relatively benign and do not have any side effects. However, pretty much anything with an effect will have side effects. Plus, herbals work because they contain certain chemicals that mimic traditional drugs. These chemicals can interfere with other medications or medical conditions and should always be checked with a physician or pharmacist before taking.

The main problem with herbal sleep medicines is that they are not regulated. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) does not have any oversight over herbal medicines. That means you have to trust the company selling the product to be selling what they claim to be selling. Sometimes the herbs may be contaminated with other herbs. Sometimes the dosing from bottle to bottle or even pill to pill can be very different because the herbs were grown under varying conditions. Plant grown collected from nature may have very different properties than those grown in a greenhouse. The timing of harvests and the amount of sunshine or rain can impact potency. Herbs collected from contaminated places can contain heavy metals and various farming chemicals. Because the companies selling herbals do not have to report to any agencies to validate their products, you have to be extra careful with taking herbal sleep medicines.

Here are a few examples of herbal sleep medicines.

• Passion flower leaves and roots (Passiflora incarnata and Passiflora edulis) were used by the Native Americans for its sedative effect. However, it can interfere with antidepressants such as Prozac, Zoloft, Effexor, St. John's Wort, and may other medications. It contains compounds similar to MAOI's. It may be a mild blood thinner. It should not be used during pregnancy.
  
  
• Valerian Root may work in a way similar to benzodiazepines which are anxiolytics like Xanax, Valium, Ativan, or Klonopin. Prolonged use can result in withdrawl symptoms and rebound insomnia. It can cause a hangover in high doses.
  
  
• Hops - yes, the ingredient in beer - is a sedative and hypnotic. It contains an chemical that is stronger than regular ethyl alcohol, the main active ingredient in alcoholic beverages. The body processes it in a way similar to regular alcohol, so excessive use could impact the liver.
  
  
• Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) is a mild relaxant used for anxiety and historically rabies. It is a sedative so should not be used with other sedatives like Xanax, Ambien, or alcohol. It has been contaminated with germander in the past, which caused liver problems.
  
  
• Chamomile flower teas are often used for relaxation. People who are allergic to ragweed or birch pollen may be allergic to Chamomile. It can intensify effects of other sedatives, so should not be mixed with them. It may not be safe during pregnancy.
  
  
• Melatonin is the only non-regulated drug alternative that has been scientifically proven with multiple research trials to help with sleep. It is most useful in jet-lag situations, where the brain needs a boost of melatonin to get to sleep. Melatonin is naturally produced in the brain to induce sleep. The melatonin pills are laboratory-produced chemicals, again, not regulated by the FDA. Technically it is not an herbal, but it can be found in the same section of the store. It should not be used during pregnancy because it can interfere with other hormones in the body. It should not be mixed with other sedatives or taken with other blood thinning products, including aspirin and gingko. Some people will have prolonged sedation the following day.
  

It is very important to check for drug interactions. Conditions like seizures, epilepsy, alcoholism, depression, anxiety, pregnancy, or breastfeeding are important to consider before trying any herbal sleep medications. Contrary to popular belief, herbals can be just as potent as some prescription drugs, and should be used with at least as much caution.