A Better-Sleep App

Did you have a good night? Check the Zeo headband

By Jamie Hall, edmontonjournal.com June 4, 2012


The Zeo Sleep Manager has been described as an at-home sleep lab.
EDMONTON -- Looking for a better night’s sleep? There’s an app for that.

In fact, there are dozens of them, all aimed at helping you fall asleep quicker, sleep better and wake up feeling rested and refreshed. There’s even a new iPhone app being tested to see if it’s possible to craft the perfect dream.

Only one, though — so far, at least — helps people track both their sleep quantity and quality in the comfort of their own beds using iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android-based smartphones. When Anderson Cooper featured the Zeo Sleep Manager mobile on his afternoon talk show recently, he admitted he had become “obsessed” with measuring his nightly sleep patterns after test-driving the headband device.

“I literally want to measure my sleep every night,” Cooper said during the show. “You wake up in the morning and you have a complete printout of your night’s sleep. It’s the coolest thing. I don’t use my iPhone very much, but it’s given me a reason to use my iPhone.”

Needless to say, sales of the device spiked in the following days. The company doesn’t reveal its sales number, but product manager Derek Haswell insists the real benefit of Cooper’s endorsement is that it’s awakening the mainstream world to the power of sleep.

“We get an increase in visits (to our website) and sales as a result of pieces likes Anderson’s, and that’s great for us as a company,” said Haswell in a recent phone interview from the company’s head office near Boston.

“But what we really want to do is build an awareness of sleep. The real story is that sleep will one day be considered just as important as diet and exercise in determining people’s overall health. There’s so much potential for Zeo and the other products in the sleep arena to empower people, and to change the way they think about their sleep and how they can make meaningful improvements to it.”

Haswell says while the science and technology of sleep is still in its infancy, it is big business. Since the company launched the Zeo Sleep Manager mobile in October 2011, it has collected nearly five million nights of sleep data from its user base.

A soft headband worn to bed measures brainwaves during sleep. The sleep data it collects is sent wirelessly to the user’s mobile phone. The data is displayed the next morning on the phone’s screen, on a chart that shows how much time was spent in wakefulness, light sleep, deep sleep and REM, the stage during which people experience vivid dreams. Users can upload the data to the Zeo website to calculate their ZQ score, which is a measure of the quality of their sleep compared to others the same age.

There are other online tools, too. Users can track dozens of “sleep stealers” that impact the quality and quantity of rest, and can also access Zeo’s online coaching program to learn how to change their lifestyle to improve sleep.

It has been described as an at-home sleep lab. In fact, says Haswell, a clinical study published by the Journal of Sleep Research reported that Zeo’s sleep stage recordings were as accurate as those from a sleep lab more than 80 per cent of the time. He’s quick to point out, though, that the device is not intended to either diagnose or treat sleep disorders.

“We’re always careful to make that distinction,” he says. “The sleep lab is still the place to go for that.”

Still, he says, everyone has struggled with sleep issues at one time or another and for them Zeo can be a very useful tool.

“A big part of my job is talking to customers,” says Haswell, “and I’m always amazed at what people are willing to put up with when it comes to dealing with their sleep problems, this kind of I’ll-sleep-when-I’m-dead mentality. For some people, typically the younger ones, sleep deprivation is like a badge of honour. But they can actually do something about it, little things that can have life-changing potential.

“It’s almost like you become a different you when you knock off some of your sleep debt. You become more of the person you ought to be.”

Win the Zeo

Zeo Sleep Manager Mobile retails for $99 and is available in Best Buy stores, on BestBuy.com, on Amazon.com, and on myZeo.com. The Journal has one to give away. For a chance to win it send an email by noon Friday with “sleep” in the subject line to livingwell@edmontonjournal.com. Make sure to include your name, address and a daytime phone number. The prize must be picked up from The Journal’s downtown office.