Features:

• Digital watch monitors your sleep patterns to help you wake up feeling refreshed
• Monitors physical data and wakes you at an optimal almost-awake moment
• Offers vibrating alarm, ringing alarm, or both
• Back-lit, digital display includes day and date
• Includes software to help you track your sleep patterns

Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
Worn like an everyday watch, SLEEPTRACKER is ideal for anyone who wants to wake up alert and ready to start the day, such as frequent travelers across time zones, business people looking for an extra edge, students with fluctuating schedules, or busy moms who need to wake up easily. SleepTraker PRO connects via USB to your computer, so you can download sleep data, make night-over-night comparisons, and keep track of other factors influencing your sleeping patterns with the included software. The Pro also offers three alarm choices: Vibrating, Ringing, or Both. Plus it features a sleek new metallic design. Why it Works The Key to Waking Up Refreshed Why is it so hard to wake up to a normal alarm clock? Because a normal alarm clock can't detect where you are in your sleep cycle -- a continuous cycle from deep sleep, to brief almost-awake moments, and back to deep sleep again. Occasionally, your alarm may catch you at an optimal, almost-awake moment and you wake up feeling refreshed, but usually you grope for the snooze button waking up tired and groggy. Wake at Your Perfect Time SLEEPTRACKER puts an end to that tired feeling. Once you set its alarm window, it monitors your body and continuously looks for your optimal waking times so it can wake you at just the right moment. Imagine not feeling tired in the morning and getting a few extra minutes out of your day. How does SLEEPTRACKER® work? SLEEPTRACKER continuously monitors signals from your body that indicate whether you are asleep or awake. Because you wear SLEEPTRACKER® on your wrist like a watch, its internal sensors can detect even the most subtle physical signals from your body. SLEEPTRACKER finds your best waking moments, so that waking up has never been easier.

Amazon.com Product Description:
Wake up feeling refreshed with the SleepTracker Pro Sleep Monitoring Watch. By tracking your body's natural sleep rhythms and sounding your alarm during optimal almost-awake moments, this watch helps you avoid being jarred from a deep slumber. And the watch also lets you download your sleep data to your computer so you can decide what lifestyle choices help you rest easier.

The SleepTracker Pro offers sleek styling and an easy-to-read digital display. View larger.

The SleepTracker identifies almost-awake moments that occur as your body cycles through the five stages of sleep.

During the night, your body goes through a series of sleep cycles comprised of five different stages. The average adult will experience four or five cycles each night, that include light stage-one sleep, slightly deeper stage-two sleep, heavy stage three, stage-four "Delta Sleep," which is when your body rebuilds itself, and REM sleep, a unique stage during which people dream and experience significant physiological changes. Pinpointing the moments within each cycle when you are naturally closest to waking makes this alarm system truly unique.

Depending on your schedule, you can set an alarm window to last for up to 90 minutes. Since your alarm sounds at the moment during the preset alarm window when you are most alert, you will wake up refreshed instead of groggy. World travelers, business associates, busy parents, and students with early morning classes are particularly likely to enjoy the edge this gives them during the first hours of every day.

Monitoring Your Sleep Data for a Healthier Lifestyle
By using the mode button to select "data review," you can review a chronological list of the previous night's almost-awake moments. The unique "Data A" reading indicates the average time between your almost-awake moments. This reading can help you know how soundly you are sleeping. A longer Data A reading than normal may indicate a particularly restful sleep, while a shorter Data A reading and an increased number of almost-awake moments may indicate a restless night.

Taking a look at what you did prior to bed on those restless evenings can help you better understand how your waking life affects your sleep patterns. Activities such as smoking, late-evening exercise, and eating a big, spicy meal can significantly impact your night's rest and your Data A reading. The Pro model offers an expanded 12-hour window of sleep data collection.

Software included with the Pro model helps you keep track of these lifestyle factors. Simply use a USB connection to transfer sleep data from the SleepTracker watch to your computer, enter any factors you want to track, and the details of your nights become available for quick and easy comparative reviews. This helps you see the serious sleep benefits of small lifestyle adjustments.

The Only Watch You Need
The SleepTracker's innovative almost-awake technology can be set to wake you with a vibrating alarm, a ringing alarm, or both at the same time. Featuring a sporty, sophisticated look that helps it do double-duty as an everyday watch, the SleepTracker has an easy-to-read digital display with time, day, and date readouts. Also offering a GLO back-light for easy nighttime reference, and water-resistance, the SleepTracker is ready to take on your busy days and help you achieve restful nights.

What's in the Box
SleepTracker Pro Watch with installed CR 2032 battery, and SleepTracker software.

Rating : - 1-st impression of Sleeptracker Pro
I've bought a Sleeptracker Pro from Amazon in Oct. '08. I've tested it for ca. 3 weeks in both US and EU, including the few jet-lagged days in between. Bgnd info on the tester: I buy and test most bio-feedback devices that may improve, or at least document, my sleeping patterns.

My 1-st take on Sleeptracker Pro: A good & simple idea with a flawed --or very alpha-- implementation. Good enough for a prototype, useful for geeks and novices, likely a let-down for users expecting results w/o much effort.

The idea is simple: Use a motion sensor to infer the wearer's sleep stage. While it can't tell the diff between deep sleep and enforced rest (not moving) or a yoga meditation, the concept is a practical approximation. The execution, though, is limited.

Items that can be improved.

1. One-touch record, w/o having to set both the "to bed" and the "alarm" time. This type of acquisition window reduces the consumer benefit (to simplify the development effort?). I'd like to press once to start the sampling.

2. Extend the user memory by 100-1000x, enough to store a few weeks of sampled data. Currently --unless one doesn't download daily to a PC-- each night will over-write the previous' session data. While FLASH memory costs cents/MB, the S.Pro stores merely a few 'user' bytes, forcing one to either daily download or loose data.

3. Relocate the "Mode" button to make it accessible while the USB clip is attached. (It's quite an irony to have the *only* button needed for USB transfer blocked by the USB clip.) Or just use a wireless / mini-USB port instead of the 3-pin contraption.

4. Software: Reminiscent of the 80s, except the GUI. While the GUI's relatively clean, it's mostly an empty shell devoid of functionality; could be built by a skilled programmer in a few days. Hence, dear developer, please enhance the s/w beyond its still alpha version where it's stuck since '07. At least allow the data to be deleted, added/inserted, shifted and displayed in more useful ways.

5. No-beep (silent) option would help when operating the watch.

Net: A good idea w/ a coarse 1st implementation, rather slow in being technically improving. Marketing seems to trump technology thus far. Does it actually work? Yes, but its lyrics imply more than the actual device/principle can do.

Is it worth your money? Yes, if you have moderate sleep problems and discipline. Probably not if you expect an accurate sleep monitor (headband sensors) or a reliable & straightforward tool. Is this device improvable? Most likely. gusat"atsign"ieee.org