Designer puts dream to bed

The Somnus-Neu bed. Photo / Supplied

Kiwi Grier Govorko is in talks with a top international hotel chain to bring his design for "the world's most advanced bed" to the global stage.

Auckland-based Govorko, who is currently in Asia meeting with manufacturers, has taken multitasking in pyjamas to a new level with his high-tech "Somnus-Neu" bed.

He told the Herald on Sunday: "Somnus-Neu will be to beds what the iPod was to portable music players, in the sense that we're converging design and technology to create something new."

Govorko, who designed sets for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, developed the Somnus-Neu, with AUT University's Business Innovation Centre. The name comes from the Roman god of sleep and the German word for new.

Somnus-Neu users can choose what colour they would like the soft light emanating from the bedframe to be before climbing into bed and connecting the wi-fi on one of the two-touch screens in the bed's sides.

When comfortable, they pull round a curtain and lower a projection screen to watch a movie or listen to music on the high-tech five-point speaker system.

Govorko envisages a global network of Somnus-Neu beds in hotels and airport lounges.

He has been in talks with UK pod hotel chain Yotel about collaborating on new hotels.