The Only ZZZs Story
How a restless mind led to a simple sleep solution
Only ZZZs didn’t start as a business idea.
It started as a personal problem.
For over 20 years, our company director struggled with sleep.
Not occasionally.
Not just during stressful periods.
But night after night, year after year.
A brain that wouldn’t switch off
Some people fall asleep as soon as their head hits the pillow.
He wasn’t one of them.
With an entrepreneurial mind, constantly thinking about ideas, problems, opportunities, and projects, his brain simply didn’t stop. Even when the room was quiet, his thoughts weren’t.
Sleep became:
- Frustrating
- Inconsistent
- Unpredictable
- And often impossible
Trying everything
Over the years, he tried just about every sleep solution available.
From the simplest to the most expensive:
- Cheap white noise machines
- High-end sleep devices
- Sleep headphones
- Meditation apps
- Premium subscription sleep apps
- Smart sleep gadgets
- Supplements
- Special pillows
- Sleep programs and courses
Some worked for a short time.
Most didn’t work at all.
Many were complicated, distracting, or full of features that had nothing to do with actual sleep.
And many of the apps designed to help people sleep were filled with:
- Ads
- Notifications
- Subscriptions
- Endless menus
- Too many choices
Ironically, the very tools meant to help with sleep often made things worse.
A different approach
After years of frustration, he decided to approach the problem differently.
Instead of looking for the next product, he began researching:
- Sleep science
- Brain activity during sleep
- Sound patterns and repetition
- Natural rhythms that help the brain relax
One thing kept appearing in research and real-world experiences:
The brain responds well to consistent, natural, repeating sounds.
And among all the options, one stood out:
Ocean waves.
The science behind the sound
Ocean waves aren’t just relaxing by chance.
They create:
- A steady, repeating rhythm
- Gentle, natural variation
- A predictable pattern the brain can follow
- A sound that masks sudden noises
Unlike random noise or harsh white noise, ocean waves have a natural cadence that the brain can “lock onto.”
With deeper research into:
- Sleep cycles
- Sound frequency ranges
- Repetition patterns
- Loop transitions
…the idea began to form.
What if the problem wasn’t the sound?
What if the problem was everything around it?
Removing the distractions
Most sleep apps were built to keep users engaged.
But sleep isn’t about engagement.
It’s about letting go.
So instead of building a complex app, the idea was to build the opposite:
The simplest sleep app possible.
No:
- Accounts
- Ads
- Tracking
- Subscriptions
- Menus
- Choices
- Distractions
Just a perfectly tuned ocean wave sound, designed to loop smoothly and gently, so the brain could settle into it.
One button. One sound. One purpose.
The final result became Only ZZZs.
An app with:
- One screen
- One sound
- One PLAY button
- One STOP button
Nothing else.
No distractions.
No decisions.
No interruptions.
Just peaceful ocean waves, repeating in a pattern designed to help the brain relax and drift into sleep.
The result
After years of struggling, the difference was immediate.
With the right sound:
- The mind slowed down
- Thoughts became quieter
- Sleep came more naturally
- Nights became more restful
What decades of gadgets, apps, and products couldn’t solve, a simple, carefully tuned ocean sound did.
The results were genuinely life-changing.
From personal solution to shared idea
Only ZZZs wasn’t created as a product first.
It was created as a personal solution to a very real, very long-term problem.
But once it worked, the idea was simple:
If this helps one restless mind sleep,
it might help others too.
A simple promise
Only ZZZs is built on a very simple promise:
- No ads
- No tracking
- No subscriptions
- No distractions
- No internet required
- No unwanted sounds
Just peaceful ocean waves, perfectly tuned for sleep.
