Mark Zuckerberg invents 'sleep box' to help his wife rest because 'being a mom is hard'
Mark Zuckerberg isn't only helping people around the world stay connected through Facebook, he's also taking his talents to helping moms (well at least one important mama).
The 34-year-old entrepreneur took to none other than Facebook to share an invention he created to help his wife and pediatrician, Priscilla Chan, sleep better through the night.
The couple shares two daughters together, 3-year-old Maxima and 1-year-old August.
"Being a mom is hard, and since we've had kids Priscilla has had a hard time sleeping through the night," Zuckerberg captioned the post that included a photo of his invention. "She'll wake up and check the time on her phone to see if the kids might wake up soon, but then knowing the time stresses her out and she can't fall back asleep."
What does this 'sleep box' do?
He coined it a "sleep box," and it's designed to emit a soft light letting her know that it's OK to go back to sleep because it's still early and the kids aren't up yet.
Zuckerberg explains: "It sits on her nightstand, and between the hours of 6-7am it emits a very faint light -- visible enough that if she sees it she'll know it's an okay time for one of us to get the kids, but faint enough that the light won't wake her up if she's still sleeping."
The Facebook CEO adds that so far his invention has been helpful and has made it so that Priscilla never has to check her phone for the time in the middle of the night.
"If she wakes up in the middle of the night, she knows to just go back to sleep without having to worry about what time it is," he wrote.
"So far this has worked better than I expected and she can now sleep through the night."
But is the idea original?
His post received thousands of comments, mostly praising him for creating a thoughtful device for his wife.
"Wow.... You are such a wonderful and caring husband... This is so great to see you noticed that thing which usually nobody cares to notice.... I have been through this when my kid was young all the time I was sleep deprived. You are such an amazing husband," wrote a Facebook user by the name of Rajni Sharma.
Others chimed in with what they thought were comparable products already on the market.
Facebook user Keza Howell wrote, "Congrats on creating a bougie version of the Ok To Wake Clock" and added a link to the kids' light-up alarm clock on Amazon.
Another mentioned the Hatch Baby Rest night light and sound machine.
Innovative or not, Zuckerburg added a call-out for a possible start-up: "A bunch of my friends have told me they'd want something like this, so I'm putting this out there in case another entrepreneur wants to run with this and build sleep boxes for more people!"
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mark Zuckerberg invents 'sleep box' to help his wife rest because 'being a mom is hard'
