Morphée Review
A little box of sleep
Verdict
Morphée is a distraction-free box that I ended up using every night to help me get to sleep. From incredible nature sounds to guided meditation, I found that I was asleep each night before the timed programmes finished. With more than 200 sleep combinations available, Morphée has enough variation that you’ll never get bored of it. If you have trouble dropping off, this is an elegant solution.
Pros
- Lots of sleep programmes
- Long battery life
- Simple to use
Cons
- Can be difficult to remember favourites
Availability
- UKRRP: £79.95
Introduction
Trying to get to sleep can be much harder than it sounds. Whether it’s our own thoughts or background noise keeping us awake, sometimes those ZZZs are hard to obtain. The Morphée is a tool to help get around that, packing meditation and natural sounds into a handy little bedside box.
Design and features
- Neat and uncomplicated design
- Wide choice of sleep programmes
Search YouTube or your phone’s app store, and you’ll find a lot of sleep programmes and natural noise creators. These will work to a degree, but they’re also bound to the distraction of a smartphone or other technology.
Morphée is different, as everything is built into a small box that sits by the bedside and is controllable by three keys. The first key lets you select the type of programme you want, including music, natural sounds, and meditation, based on different themes.
Next, there’s a numbered key that lets you select from each programme’s eight settings. And, finally, you can choose between 8min and 20min sessions and, for meditation programmes, between a female and a male voice.
Altogether, that gives more than 200 combinations. While I like the device’s simplicity, trying to remember what the icons do and which programmes are my favourites is difficult. I recommend keeping the manual close by, at least initially, to make the choice a bit easier.
Having so much choice is vital, as there are bound to be programmes you don’t like. I’m a big fan of the nature noises and the breathing exercises, but the meditation programme that tried to get me to pretend I was on a boat wasn’t for me.
The Morphée is battery-powered and will last for at least seven days when run in this mode, although it can be charged or permanently powered via its micro-USB port. It also has a built-in speaker and a standard 3.5mm audio jack if you prefer to listen with headphones.
Performance
- An impressive array of programmes
- Really does help you get to sleep
I was sceptical about how good a device like this could be. I’ll admit that I initially thought that the price was a little too high, given that similar features can be had for free via apps and YouTube. I was wrong.
Starting off, the nature noises are excellent. They’re recorded in 3D in real life. From gentle lapping waves to the sounds of the jungle, I found that these nature sounds blocked out distracting background noises and made for a more relaxing experience.
Morphée says you’ll get the best experience with headphones in, although these make it harder to sleep, so I just stuck with the internal speaker.
The guided sessions have been put together by a team of relaxation experts and gently lead you into relaxing states. As I said before, there will be some you like and some you hate, but I found that there were enough combinations of good ones that I didn’t get bored of the selection.
In all cases, I never managed to get to the end of a 20min session, as I’d fall asleep before it. And it wasn’t just me. My wife also likes the Morphée, and having agreed on a session, we’d both be asleep before its end.
Having all of this in a box without distraction or screens is brilliant: it’s far easier to grab the Morphée, select a programme and hit play than to faff about with a smartphone or tablet.
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Should you buy it?
If you have trouble getting to sleep and relaxing, this distraction-free box has everything you need packed into it.
If you need only occasional help, then guided meditation or nature sounds apps or videos may be easier.
Final Thoughts
To me, the true value of a product lies in the answer to the ‘Would I use it?’ question. There are a lot of technically good products that I would struggle to justify using. However, the Morphée is different, as I came back to it every night by choice. As someone who can sometimes find it hard to drift off, I felt that the Morphée was a good distraction, helping me relax and fall asleep naturally and quickly. That, to me, makes it well worth the money.
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FAQs
No, it works with wired headphones only via its 3.5mm audio output.
You’ll get at least seven days of normal usage from a single charge.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
