We're all sleeping less and sleeping worse. Our demanding life carries over from work or school to home and social gatherings, and noise pollution is everywhere disturbing us even when we do eventually fall asleep. That's the problem Hush aims to solve.

Foam earplugs are wearable, by default, but they're not smart. Hush adds electronic components into them, making them connect to your Android (or iOS) smartphone via Bluetooth and play some soothing sounds. Their goal is to help you fall asleep in noisy environments, whether there's an obnoxious kid on your flight, your partner's snoring could wake the dead, your neighbors are party animals, or you simply want to retreat deeper into your own bubble.

Hush doesn't use active noise cancelation. The system relies on passive noise canceling through the physical seal created by the foam — like a regular earplug. Then it adds sound playback to mask the remaining noise that seeps in. Think of it as a foam earplug and a sound machine mashed into one, and then made to also play selective alerts and alarms from your phone.

The Hush app should allow you to choose your preferred sounds to fall asleep to among a preset selection — white noise, ocean waves, fan, thunderstorm, and more. Binaural beats are supported, if you happen to believe their controversial effect on brain states. The app also lets you set the types of notifications you want to reach you during your sleep along with a personal alarm that should wake no one but you.

The Hush should last 10 hours on one battery charge — enough for the most sleep-loving people. But they do come with a nice charging case that provides enough power for 10 charges without needing to be plugged in. The case also houses some replacement foams.

The project has already blasted through its Kickstarter goal of $100,000, reaching almost double that in a bit more than 10 days. At this point the Early Bird pledges are gone, but you can still get one for $115 or two for $199, and expect them to ship sometime after May 2015. The Hush team also says that they will honor a ninety-day return policy in case you get yours and find them to be uncomfortable to wear.

Source: Hush on Kickstarter