Unless I’m misunderstanding, a lot of what the Zeo does is select a wake time that matches one’s sleep cycle. I have twin infants; the time(s) at which I am awoken are entirely out of my control. :D Also, I don’t use an alarm, and haven’t in many years; as such I awake at what I assume is the right point of my sleep cycle (when allowed to wake naturally, which doesn’t much happen anymore).
If I’m misunderstanding, feel free to elaborate; the copy on Amazon at least is pretty inspecific.
Generally speaking, though, I don’t have a serious problem with sleep debt or effective sleep or anything; my main sleep problem is staying up so late that I’m ineffective and hence wasting my time, but I do generally get enough sleep to compensate so that I’m OK in the morning.
I had a Zeo for awhile. It does a pretty good job, but it was disturbing how locked-in your data was. There are smartphone apps that will also gather comparable data for much less:
Also, if you snore, then blood oxygenation level is not a bad proxy for sleep, and clinical quality devices are available on ebay for much less than a new Zeo.
ZEO isn’t locked in at all anymore- they have a decrypted firmware you can download, an open source library for interfacing the data format, as well as instructions online to interface the ZEO directly via a serial port if you want realtime data.
You can now use the ZEO without even ever uploading the data to their website.
If the OP is interested in performance as it relates to sleep, this is probably an interesting area to explore. Metaphorically, if I see someone struggling to pick apples from a tree here, I might direct them to the low-hanging oranges on the tree there.
That said, I also did answer the OP’s question up-thread.
Yeah, I guess Zeo would be better, but I dunno whether it is so much better as to justify the larger price (two orders of magnitude more expensive than Sleep Cycle).
Yes, locked in. When I was using the Zeo, all of your data lived on their flash based site, and there was no obvious way to get it out and into your own analytic tools.
Also, for purposes of managing sleep hygiene, you don’t need highly accurate records. Moderately accurate data will benefit most individuals with imperfect sleep hygiene.
They’ve had CSV export ever since I began using it, and I’ve never had major problems with that—it’s what I use for my statistics in R. Since around when I got one, they even have firmware that supports sending out the raw data second by second over a serial cable (which I was thinking about using for meditation).
So I figure either stcredzero used Zeo a long time ago, or he simply didn’t know about the options.
I would think there would be too many confounding variables, and the best you could do is find some testable proxy for performance.
You could just buy a Zeo.
Unless I’m misunderstanding, a lot of what the Zeo does is select a wake time that matches one’s sleep cycle. I have twin infants; the time(s) at which I am awoken are entirely out of my control. :D Also, I don’t use an alarm, and haven’t in many years; as such I awake at what I assume is the right point of my sleep cycle (when allowed to wake naturally, which doesn’t much happen anymore).
If I’m misunderstanding, feel free to elaborate; the copy on Amazon at least is pretty inspecific.
Generally speaking, though, I don’t have a serious problem with sleep debt or effective sleep or anything; my main sleep problem is staying up so late that I’m ineffective and hence wasting my time, but I do generally get enough sleep to compensate so that I’m OK in the morning.
-Robin
I had a Zeo for awhile. It does a pretty good job, but it was disturbing how locked-in your data was. There are smartphone apps that will also gather comparable data for much less:
http://lifehacker.com/5441045/sleep-cycle-analyzes-your-sleep-patterns-for-a-better-wake+up
Also, if you snore, then blood oxygenation level is not a bad proxy for sleep, and clinical quality devices are available on ebay for much less than a new Zeo.
ZEO isn’t locked in at all anymore- they have a decrypted firmware you can download, an open source library for interfacing the data format, as well as instructions online to interface the ZEO directly via a serial port if you want realtime data.
You can now use the ZEO without even ever uploading the data to their website.
Locked in?
Also, I haven’t see any reliable information to the effect that accelerometer-based inferences are comparable to the Zeo’s electrode recording.
I’m confused by this thread. A Zeo isn’t going to tell you when you ought to go to sleep.
No, but it will tell you if you aren’t getting enough in general, which is more relevant since sleep debt can build up over several days.
It’s not what OP is asking about.
If the OP is interested in performance as it relates to sleep, this is probably an interesting area to explore. Metaphorically, if I see someone struggling to pick apples from a tree here, I might direct them to the low-hanging oranges on the tree there.
That said, I also did answer the OP’s question up-thread.
Yeah, I guess Zeo would be better, but I dunno whether it is so much better as to justify the larger price (two orders of magnitude more expensive than Sleep Cycle).
Yes, locked in. When I was using the Zeo, all of your data lived on their flash based site, and there was no obvious way to get it out and into your own analytic tools.
Also, for purposes of managing sleep hygiene, you don’t need highly accurate records. Moderately accurate data will benefit most individuals with imperfect sleep hygiene.
Perhaps it’s a new functionality, but their site currently offers data export to CSV.
They’ve had CSV export ever since I began using it, and I’ve never had major problems with that—it’s what I use for my statistics in R. Since around when I got one, they even have firmware that supports sending out the raw data second by second over a serial cable (which I was thinking about using for meditation).
So I figure either stcredzero used Zeo a long time ago, or he simply didn’t know about the options.