When most people hear the word “wearable,” they probably think of an Apple Watch. For a long time, wearables have been defined by the smartwatch and all of the health-tracking, discreet notification-delivering prowess they offer. But it’s been a long time since the first Apple Watch rolled onto the scene—over 10 years, in fact—and a lot has happened in the world of wearables since then. Potentially, too much, actually.
When I say there’s a wearable for basically everything, I’m only being a little hyperbolic. Take this recent entrant from a company called Sabi, which crams wearable technology into… a beanie. What exactly does a wearable/beanie do, you ask? Well, read your brain, of course. Sabi says that using electroencephalography (EEG) and loads of tiny sensors inside the beanie, their wearable can act as a brain-to-computer interface and translate your thoughts into text on a separate device. The device can apparently populate words on a screen at a rate of about 30 words per minute.
hello world, I am @sabicap https://t.co/VmvFtopA8I
— Sabi (@sabicap) April 16, 2026
A device like this has applications most directly for those with accessibility needs, but theoretically, anyone could use it, and as novel as the ideal might sound, brain-sensing wearables with EEG are an increasingly competitive category. I should know, since I’ve tried some. Audio products, for example, like the ones made by a company called NextSense, promise to shove the benefits of a health wearable inside a small set of wireless earbuds.
Using EEG, NextSense’s Smartbuds can monitor your sleep in real-time, which is a difference compared to other sleep-tracking wearables. Counterparts like Oura’s smart rings infer sleep through other biometric signals like heart rate and body temperature, which is slightly less direct. NextSense brings its EEG buds a step further, too. The company says its wireless earbuds can not only monitor your sleep, but also assess the level of sleep and then improve it by playing strategically timed pink noise. It’s a novel approach to sleep tracking, and it didn’t work as well as I would have liked when I reviewed the buds, but it’s still an interesting example of just how expansive wearables have become. NextSense isn’t alone in its line of thinking, either.
Somnee, which offers a sleep headband, is venturing down a similar path. Like the NextSense Smartbuds, Somnee’s sleep headband has EEGs that can read your brain waves and is meant to improve sleep, though it takes a slightly different approach. Instead of deepening sleep with pink noise, it actually shocks your brain a little (15 minutes of light electrical stimulation, called transcranial alternating current stimulation) in order to mimic sleep signals and get you to sleep faster. I’ve tried it, and it’s strange to say the least, but for some people it might actually improve sleep.
If EEGs in a beanie and shocking your brain to sleep don’t seem exciting enough, I’ll raise you an EEG inside a gaming headset. This one from HyperX and a company called Neurable can read your brain waves and assess your focus levels. If it detects that you’re distracted, you can take a brief meditative test that involves focusing on dots on a screen until they form into a singular orb. This, theoretically, is supposed to increase your focus and help you perform better in games like shooters that require tip-top reaction time and mental acuity. Gizmodo’s staff reporter Kyle Barr tried the headset out at CES this past year, and while the results were mixed, he did improve his accuracy in a shooting test.
Brain-reading wearables are still in their relative infancy, and while there’s no concrete evidence on their effectiveness in tasks like raising focus, improving sleep, or making you a pro esports player, that hasn’t stopped companies from trying. Heck, even Apple wants a piece of the wearable crossover pie; its AirPods Pro 3 shove health sensors into the company’s iconic wireless earbuds to make them part health wearable, part audio product. Sure, they’re not zapping your brain quite yet, but reading your heart rate might just be the start of what’s to come.
And even if wireless earbuds and headbands can’t alleviate all of our collective ailments, it’s been fun to watch them try. I, for one, will be the first one in line, ready to shock my brain into better sleep—Lord knows I need it.
