5 Home Devices That Can Make Your Evenings More Relaxing

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Logging off for the day should feel like a relief, but it sometimes takes more than just stepping away from the keyboard to wind down. Traffic can be rough, and once you get home, there can be stress there, too, from figuring out what to cook for dinner to looking around at everything that needs to be cleaned. That's why it's important to have some gadgets around, like smart lights or an eReader, that'll help make your evenings more relaxing when you need to hit pause for a little while.

Surprisingly, one of the easiest ways to help create a calm vibe in your home is with some smart device routine automation. With it, you can tell any of your connected smart devices to do something at a certain time. So, for example, you can have your smart lights dim and your smart speakers start playing a relaxing playlist right when you walk in the door. Though not every device out there supports it, having those that do kick in without you doing a thing can really help a tired body and soul.

Building a relaxing setup is easier than ever, and nabbing the right combination of devices to have on hand makes it easy to instantly shift from stressed to relaxed every evening. While there are gadgets that can help reduce stress, having a few others that make your evenings more relaxing is also nice. So let's jump in and take a look at a few of the best relaxing home devices to see what they offer.

Nothing kills a relaxing evening vibe faster than harsh overhead lights. Bright, cool-toned LED bulbs may be great for staying alert at the office during morning meetings, but they also trick the brain into staying awake and focused long after the sun sets. Switching out your bulbs for smart lights, like the Govee Smart Light Bulbs, is the easiest way to fix this problem. With millions of colors and temperatures to choose from, these bulbs can morph a bright living room or bedroom into a moody, amber-lit retreat in seconds.

The best part of smart bulbs is their great automation options. Nobody wants to pull out their phone to adjust sliders every single night. But with a companion mobile app, you can program a custom routine called something like "home from work" or "sunset." With it, you can set the bulbs to automatically turn on and dim a bit, and even shift toward a warmer, reddish-orange hue right around dinnertime. This automated shift mimics the actual sunset, gently signaling to your body that it's time to relax and start winding down for the day.

Like most smart bulbs, Govee's integrate with popular voice assistants; if you don't want to set up automation, you can use a voice command to tell them to change to a warm amber hue. Either way, your evenings just got much more relaxing.

Mindlessly scrolling through your social media or binge-watching semi-interesting TV shows might feel like an okay way to unwind, but activities like these actually stimulate your brain instead of helping it wind down. Glowing screens emit blue light that can disrupt your circadian rhythms, keeping your mind racing and making it harder to fall asleep that night. The Kindle Paperwhite is a solid device to swap in here, as it's a gentler alternative for evening entertainment. It sports an e-ink display that looks like real paper and is glare-free.

Diving into a good book (like a fun sci-fi novel or thriller) is a proven way to lower stress, and the Kindle Paperwhite offers more than just a good story. It's easy to adjust its brightness and color tone, shifting from the cool white you use during the day to a more soothing, sleep-friendly amber; this subtle adjustment prevents eye strain during late-night reading sessions. And it also has an IPX8 rating, so you won't have to worry about water damage, making it a handy companion for a soak in the tub to wind down at the end of the day.

Though it won't connect to your smart home, the Kindle Paperwhite syncs both reading progress and your library downloads via Wi-Fi without any effort on your part. You can even read library ebooks on it and, should you need it, there's also a color-screen version of the Kindle that's great for reading comic books and graphic novels. For anyone who loves a good story, this gadget is a fantastic way to relax and focus on something interesting after work.

The kitchen can often be one of the biggest sources of after-work anxiety, turning what should be some peaceful evening time into a frantic scramble for dinner. Trying to figure out what food you do have while also trying to think of a recipe that works is probably the last thing you feel like doing after work. Fortunately, the Everblog FridgeCal solves this stress point, and also magnetizes to your fridge to turn it into a central info hub for your family. 

By far, the most helpful feature of this gadget is grocery management; in fact, we loved it when we reviewed the Everblog FridgeCal. All you have to do is snap a photo of your grocery haul with the companion app, then the device's AI software automatically notes what you have and creates recipes based on what's available, which takes the stress of figuring out what's for dinner off your shoulders. It also automatically sends you produce expiration alerts, giving you a chance to use up whatever's about to go bad before it does, potentially saving you money.

Beyond dinner, the FridgeCal's digital calendar syncs with major calendar apps like Apple Calendar and Google Calendar, to show things like schedules, chore charts, meal plans, and even the grocery list to everyone in your household. This makes it super easy for everyone to stay in the know without bugging each other. Between that and helping you with dinner, the Everblog FridgeCal goes a long way to helping your evenings stay nice and comforting.

Audio plays a big role in setting a relaxing tone, yet far too many folks settle for the noise of having a blaring TV in the background. Bringing an Amazon Echo Dot Smart Speaker into your space is a total upgrade, as it's designed to make your audio sound good, whether you're just listening to an easygoing playlist or wanting some ambient nature sounds. And with support for voice controls, you can adjust the audio or change it up with a single command, which is great when you just need to decompress.

The Echo Dot is also great for using it as the hub for your smart home tech and automation routines. You can set up routines with just a few taps in the companion app for your evening wind-down. You can set it to launch at a specific time or with a specific voice command you create, called something like "start wind down." Then, any smart gadgets you loop in there can do things like dim the lights, lower the temperature with your smart thermostat, or even launch a curated chill out playlist for you.

In addition to controlling your smart gadgets, Amazon's Echo Dot speaker has dedicated features designed specifically for helping you wind down. It can narrate audiobooks while you rest your eyes. It also has built-in sleep timers if you want to automatically fade out white noise or thunderstorm tracks, helping you drift easily into deep sleep. In fact, there are some great lesser-known Alexa commands for getting better sleep, such as asking it to narrate a story or setting up a bedtime reminder.

Physical tension tends to accumulate right behind the eyes and across the temples, especially for anyone who spends hours staring at glowing monitors. By the time evening rolls around, eye strain and tension headaches can make it hard to cook dinner or take the kids to piano lessons, let alone relax. Thankfully, the Renpho Eyeris 3 Eye Massager is designed to combat this modern problem. Wrapping this futuristic-looking, padded visor around your head gives you a compression massage while you lie on your couch.

This wellness gadget has plenty of features to help get rid of the day's stubborn tension, and can even be controlled hands-free with voice commands. It has customizable features like heating pads for soothing puffy eyes and a removable cooling gel mask for helping migraines. The device even rocks Bluetooth connectivity, so you can pair it to your phone and listen to a podcast or some lo-fi beats through its built-in speakers. While it might seem simple, Renpho's Eyeris 3 is a powerful and well-rounded gadget that'll help release your stress from the day.

For this roundup, we wanted to include devices that offer a well-rounded way to relax, whether you use just one or multiple of them at once. We also made sure to choose devices that are highly regarded, well-made, widely available, and not too expensive (including not requiring a monthly subscription in order to work). We made sure any included smart gadgets work with all major smart home ecosystems, too.