SmartWake™ – A Different Way to Wake Up

As you know, Zeo is a Personal Sleep Coach.   But did you know that things all got started with ‘Project SleepSmart’, a smart alarm clock?

In the Beginning, there was a 9am class.

It started with a simple idea.   During a basic psychology class, we learned that if you woke up from the ‘right’ point in your sleep cycle you would feel more refreshed and alert in the morning.  As sleep deprived college students – falling asleep during every 9am class – we wanted this for ourselves.  So we decided to build it.

Kuji working on a base station demo

Jason models headband prototype

Sleep Inertia

Our first step as scientists and engineers was to research morning grogginess, a.k.a sleep inertia.

Sleep inertia itself has been a topic of substantial research for over 40 years. Studies conducted by scientists and agencies such as NASA and the US Air Force have shown that awakening a user from certain phases of sleep resulted in better reaction times, increased performance on cognitive processing tasks, and decreased sleepiness.  Subsequent studies have confirmed findings about the effects of sleep inertia on performance and accidents, leading to operational and procedural changes within government organizations in order to minimize these detrimental effects.

In addition, studies have demonstrated that the effects of sleep inertia are more severe when combined with sleep deprivation–and can last up to 4 hours! Since our society is seriously sleep deprived, this is a real problem for many. We figured that if we could design and build a product that successfully helps every day individuals deal with this, it would be a huge step forward.  With that, SmartWake was born.

Enter SmartWake

As we had learned, one way to lessen the impact of sleep inertia is to wake up at the right time in your sleep phase–but how do you know what that “right phase” is and measure it day after day?

Ben and Paolo working on the SmartWake algorithm

Turns out that the worst phase to wake up is in deep sleep.  Since we designed Zeo to measure your brain activity, it not only can accurately detect when deep sleep occurs, but  avoid rousing when you will be most groggy.   While deep sleep primarily occurs during the first half of the night,  certain individuals (especially those that are sleep deprived) experience deep sleep close to their wakeup time.

In contrast, the best phase to wake up in is actually not a phase at all but a transition between REM and Light sleep. This specific transition point is chosen to avoid the deeper portions of Non-REM sleep as well as the middle of REM sleep where you could be jolted from an involved dream.  In addition to measuring brainwaves, our sensors also pay attention to eye movements and muscle tone, which help us to further optimize the actual wake up point.

By taking all of these factors into account, the SmartWake algorithm can then find the right time to awaken you during the half-hour window (never later!) before your set alarm time.

If You Build It, Will They Come?

After successfully building and developing the SmartWake technology, we noticed a vexing problem.  Despite our best wishes (“wake up completely refreshed even if you only sleep 5 hours!”), SmartWake was not quite able to deliver that effect.  In testing, we learned that many people loved SmartWake (especially when compared to their traditional alarm clocks) and felt much better in the morning.  But others still had morning grogginess and wanted to know what else they could do to avoid this.   To help more people get the most from their sleep (and still wake up feeling refreshed) we’ve since gone on to develop web tools and coaching programs to pair with the data you see on your Zeo Bedside Display in the morning.

Minimize Morning Grogginess

As a final note, here are a few tips to help you stave off some of that early morning grogginess:

• Sleep a full 7-9 hours every night – ideally waking up naturally when you are fully rested (tough for most of us!).  Also watch out for sleep loss accumulating over time and causing sleep debt.
• Keep a consistent bed/rise time every day of the week (even on the weekend!)
  
• Get the most our of the time you do sleep – focus on sleep quality.  Deep and REM sleep are important for restoring your body and mind – make sure you are getting enough!
• Caffeine, athletic activity, and bright light exposure have all been shown to increase alertness.
• For me personally – there is nothing like a cold shower to wake me up on those 4am trips to the airport!

SmartWake is awesome (and we still have a soft spot for it) – but there is a lot more going on with your sleep than just waking up on the right side of the bed.  If you’ve tried SmartWake in the past, we’d love to hear about it–give us your feedback below!

P.S.

For more information on the academic research into sleep inertia we recommend the following resources:

• Rosenkind, Mark A. et al. “Alertness management: strategic naps in operational settings”. J. Sleep Res. 1995; 4(S2): 62-66.
• Tassi P and Muzet A. “Sleep Inertia”. Sleep Medicine Reviews 2000; 4(4): 341-351.
• Cavallero C and Versace F. “Stage at Awakening, Sleep Inertia and Performance”. Sleep Research Online. 2003; 5(3): 89-97.
• Moser, Sauter et al. Is the Subjective Sleep and Awakening Quality Affected by the Awakening Stage? Medical University of Vienna, Department of Neurology; Department of Psychiatry, Austria. 2006.

Tagged as: Zeo Development