The SleepTracker is a wrist watch with something extra...it monitors your sleep pattern through out the night. Since it does NOT function by detecting your Alpha, Beta, or Theta brainwave activities, you do NOT have to shave spots on your head and hook up electrodes to your scalp. However, you DO have to wear the watch on your wrist while you sleep.

The device detects how much you actually move around during the night and predict when you are most like to be in the "light sleep" phase of your sleep cycle.

The device is easy to set. The large button on the right cycles through the different modes (ToBed, Alarm, Wake Window, Data).

The first thing is to set when you usually go to bed (11:15 PM). This tells the watch to start sampling data from that point on....no use sampling when you are walking around the house :-) The "Alarm" is when you want to get up (6:45 AM). The "Window" is the period BEFORE the alarm time that SleepTracker may decide it's time to wake you...based on where you are in your sleep cycle (20 minutes). It may go off before the set alarm time, but it will definitely go off at the alarm time whether you are in a "good place" in your cycle or not...so there is no chance you'll miss that breakfast meeting!

The SleepTracker also tracks the number of time you get close to the "almost awake" state during the night. In the photo, you see there has been 8 times the watch detected that state...the last of which was at 4:57AM. Data A is the wear's "average" time between "almost awake" periods. This is the user's baseline. By monitoring this number, the wearer can get a feel for if something is affecting their normal sleep pattern.

I'm not sure why, but the device resets itself (deletes all the tracking data) if you don't wear it for a night. I suppose it must have something to do with the fact that it is actually sampling data, but there was no movement, so it writes over what was there with zeros... just guessing here :-)

In the next segment of this series, we posted the results of our sleep tests and how this device performed in the following sleep scenarios:

1. Weeknight: 11PM - 7AM

2. Mid-day nap: 1PM - 1:30PM

3. Weekend: 11PM- 10AM

We were intrigued when we first read about this device. We wondered if it would be just the thing to help us get up when we had to adapt to different time zones.

We got one from the folks at Innovative Sleep Solutions and have been playing with with for about two weeks.

The results were very interesting...mostly because the device is based on a fairly simple premise, but it actually works surprisingly well.

SleepTracker works by way of a small accelerometer that senses certain kinds of movements that are indicative of light stages of sleep.

If you use it for what it is designed to do, it will help get you out of bed in the morning without jarring you out of a deep sleep... which is more than I can say for my cat!

Reviews:

1. SleepTracker - First Look.

2. SleepTracker - Initial Test

3. SleepTracker - Boston WHDH TV

Review Summary:

Initial Impression- Good

Usability- Excellent

Durability- Test in progress

Price- Good

Carolyn will have her own thoughts on this device next week... be sure to go check in Carolyn's World for her take on the SleepTracker!