SleepTracker - Waking up right...

I've covered a few alarm clocks on this blog before, but for sheer improvement in quality of life, this one's potential seems tough to beat. The SleepTracker claims to monitor the various cycles of your sleep and "find your best waking moments" close to your desired wakeup time. I'm no sleep expert (ask my psych-grad wife for that stuff), but if that means the difference between a refreshing alert wakeup and a groggy stumble from quasi-dreamland, sign me up! Of course, it could all be snakeoil - depending on the theories on which it's based and the ability of its technology to deliver - but it's an intriguing and innovative thought to even attempt this kind of thing. Nice!
[via MAKE]

2 comments:

Pete Kazanjy said...

I purchased this about two years ago. The cool thing was, it does key off of things going on in your body, and does choose the right time to fire. The bad news: because it's watch-based, when it *does* fire, it's too limited to wake your reliably. I ended up sending it back.

Now, if it could transmit the information about your being "ready" to wake to a traditional, standalone alarm clock on the nightstand--now you'd have a killer product. If it could abstract the sensor piece from the alarm piece, i'd buy it, because when it did work, it worked great.

Dave Gustafson said...

Wow, gotta love first-hand experience! Technologically, having the watch (sensor) cue a separate clock (alarm) should be very easy, using any kind of RF. I just wonder if the company that makes these did any user testing, which may have made them aware of the need...?