Comments on: Zeo 'sleep coach' tracks your ZZZs, wakes you up

It doesn't only wake you up in an easy mode. Zeo also wants to be your personal sleep coach--collecting data on your sleep habits and offering a seven-step sleep fitness program.

[DanVogelsong]

Do want.

[ldepetrillo]

this beats all the other techie clocks with one hand tied behind its back

[JeyRo]

I use Easywakeup app for my iPhone that does the same job, saves money all right

[JeyRo]

forgot the link easywakeup.net

[DPinDC]

I BOUGHT ONE . . . based on 1) softball newspaper reviews (and CNET certainly hasn?t brought any insights to it) -- clearly engineered by the company with the same provided photos, video clips and story-lines appearing in article after article . . . and 2) my silly thinking that there could be a "silver bullet."

MONITORING IS NOT AS PRECISE as one might infer. You can wake up constantly through the night, but if those events are less than a few minutes each, Zeo doesn't notice, e.g., I get brilliant sleep scores after such extremely disruptive nights.

SLEEP-SCORING ALGORITHM IS LAME, e.g., one night I couldn't sleep, got up for 3.5 hours (which was accurately recorded in the device because I kept the monitor on), ended up getting up about 10 a.m. (it was Saturday), and the Zeo gave me an above-average score for a terrible night's sleep (seemingly because I netted 7 hours albeit over 10.5 hours time)!

SO WHAT IS IT ? A TOY? The company pointed says the Zeo is ?not a medical device or intended for diagnosis or treatment of sleep disorders.? So why is all the product talk about producing better sleep for people?

PRICE. Geez, you can buy a real computer for $400. Just read some good articles about sleep. As NYT's David Pogue concludes: having spent $400, you might be more motivated to use good sleep practices, but you could have done that without parting with four Benjies.

BOTTOM-LINE: Zeo is not wowee technology. At best, its stunning price motivates you to get more serious about your pre-sleep habits.

[sirhutchylax]

Did you buy the product and then send it back?

[GeorgeKao]

Thank you for this very helpful and honest review!

I was most interested in the monitoring technology, since I tend to wake up for a minute or two many times throughout the night. Glad to see from your review that Zeo probably won't catch those crucial sleep disruptions.

If anyone else has suggestions on another device that does a good job of monitoring sleep patterns, please reply here.

Thanks!

[Tboom]

Excellent review!! Thank you for reporting on this item. Seems to me that, as usual, if it seems to good to be true, then.....

[sirhutchylax]

your talking about SLEEP! Its 1/3rd of your life, why not make the investment to better understand your body to significantly improve the other 2/3rds....its the most crucial preparation for any athlete before an event, any student before a test, and can change an average persons daily life immensely. I agree its a little over priced but why not invest in your own health and well-being? It has made a huge impact on my life and helped me address sleeping problems i have been facing since i was a kid. Sleep is one of the fastest growing problems and markets in the country right now, price or not ill be surprised if this thing dosent become wildly popular in the next few years.

You can use it to produce more efficient sleep, how is the fact that it dosent diagnose sleep disorders at all relevant? All it takes to be diagnosed with insomnia is to walk into any doctors office and say "it takes me hours to fall asleep" something the zeo can tell you with far more accuracy and data to prove it. Just because it dosent have its own PHD and dosent want to deal with legal issues dosent mean it cant significantly improve your sleep.

[Wez]

Amounts to only a very expensive alarm clock. As mentioned above, it is very inaccurate therefore useless for analyzing your actual sleep. After getting dubious recordings, I videotaped myself sleeping a couple of nights with the Zeo in the corner of frame so I can match up the graph time.

The Zeo reported I was in REM or even 'Light sleep' when I was clearly wide awake on the video, and even while going to the bathroom. It would also show me awake for periods of 30 to 45 minutes each night, when I sure didnt recall it, and the video showed me asleep with mouth hanging open and lightly snoring.

The transmitter apparently transmits only intermittently so it misses microarousals that could be very crucial to detecting problems like apnea.

Support has been very slow to respond about the issue. They suggested I try the other scanner that comes with it which made no difference, and have offered to replace the unit but I can tell this just plain does not work well.

Love the 'smartwake' alarm clock though.... hardly worth $400.

[benn686]

Thanks Wez/ DPinDC for doing proper reviews!

I don't mind spending $400 if it's accurate... as a matter of fact, I don't really need the coaching info either, I just would like something that accurately and thoroughly tracks the duration and depth of sleep all during the night.

There is another device that came out recently the WakeMate ( http://www.wakemate.com/ ).. it uses the power of the iPhone, which I unfortunately don't have (I'm kinda partial to the Android side of things).. but if anyone has it, please post a review here!

Thanks!