Sleep data is cool stuff.  I mean, really cool, wicked awesome, holy-cow caliber stuff.

The obvious reason is that it’s like getting a report from the other side.  You don’t remember being there but your sleep data each morning says “yes you were there – and we’ve got the Facebook photos to prove it.”

But there are some things cooler than just sleep data. Hard to believe, I know, but it’s true.

What’s cooler than sleep data, you ask, not sure if that’s even possible.

How about an artist who does work inspired by and comprised of sleep data?

Why Laurie Frick Loves Sleep

Laurie Frick is one such artist.  When we first heard about her sleep inspired (and, as we found out, Zeo inspired) art, we went nuts.  We had no idea that someone would take something that was already pretty awesome – and turn it up to 11.

She doesn’t do a small little piece here and there, but massive gallery-sized installations of sleep data.  Nights and nights of sleep data, from different people, filling walls and sometimes even spilling into the ceiling.

As Laurie herself said in a 2011 QS talk:

I use the way you spend your time to reflect back to you the innate rhythm of your mind.

In terms of sleep, Laurie noticed that they way we sleep – moving in and out of different periods all throughout the night – mimicked the way in which we use our time during the day.

Laurie Frick - Month of Sleep

We ourselves seem to know this – if we spend a day buzzing in and out of behaviors and not allowing ourselves time to focus and do the right thing, we’ve eaten poorly, had too much caffeine, and didn’t have enough downtime.  The payback for that is we then have less than awesome sleep.

We know this anecdotally – but that point is driven home once we get that sleep data in front of us.  Again, that report from the other side confirms our behavior.   As Laurie noted in the same QS Talk:

The nature of [bio] rhythm is a lot like music.  There’s a beat, a cadence ..[and] we recognize it.

By creating these large scale pieces, Laurie calls our attention to the rhythm that rules not only our waking life but our sleeping life as well.  Her work allows us to see all these undulations and tempos in their full, 24 hour glory.

But don’t take our word for it.  Go experience it for yourself.

These Shows Will Change The Way You Look At Sleep

Laurie Frick has two new shows opening this winter, one in Austin, TX and the other in Los Angeles, CA.  If you live near either city or will be visiting, check her work out!

Her Austin show, “Quantify Me” is at the Women and Their Work Art Gallery and runs from January 14 – March 10th, while the LA show, “Death and Life of an Object” is at the Edward Cella gallery and opens February 11th.

If you can’t make it to either one -or just plain old forget (it happens) – you can always check out Laurie’s phenomenal work at www.lauriefrick.com.

Regardless of how you experience Laurie’s art, we want to know:

How does this presentation cause you look at data differently?

Comment below; can’t wait to see what you say!

Andi (ZQ: 86) is the editor of Zeology and the Zeo Knowledge Center. By tweet or by post, email or Expert Answer, she makes sure people get the information they need about sleep.

We hear a lot of stories here at Zeo.

Some are straightforward. Some are complex.

Some are mindblowing.

Recently, a Zeo user named Joel B. wrote to us and told us how his wife’s life improved after her sleep improved.  Their story falls into the “mindblowing” category.

Here’s Joel’s story:

For perhaps 6-8 months, possibly more, my wife had been showing signs of cognitive impairment. Memory loss, lack of ‘presence,’ unable to follow complex instructions, etc. It was bad enough that a few weeks ago when a new client asked her our address, she couldn’t remember.

She also developed a bilateral hand tremor so we went from her internist to a neurologist. I’d noticed that she had taken to snoring, and my thought (with which the neurologist agreed) was that it could be obstructive sleep apnea.

So we did the whole sleep study routine, and yes indeed, she had obstructive sleep apnea. Tried CPAP, she couldn’t stand it. She switched to Provent (small nasal strips with a one-way valve that restricts exhalation to raise pressure in the oral cavity and thus do some or all of what a CPAP machine does). That eliminated the snoring, and a recording pulse oximeter showed improved oxygenation. Great!

But her cognition didn’t improve.

I then bought the Zeo, to see if she had a more or less normal sleep pattern. Well, lo and behold, after about 2-3 weeks of measurements, my wife had registered a grand total of no REM sleep.

Zero.

Not one minute in the entire period.

Since my wife was on antidepressants, I thought that might have something to do with her issue. So I decided it was time to hit the research literature.  Fortunately, I’ve had training as a medical writer and researcher, so this wasn’t unfamiliar territory for me.

In poking around, I came across info that that said that SSRI (a.k.a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) antidepressant drugs suppress–often entirely–REM sleep. As I delved further into the literature, I found robust support for this.

Apparently, it’s a well-known (if rarely mentioned) side effect of the antidepressants. I contacted an old grad school friend, Joe Graedon. He immediately said that not only do the SSRIs suppress REM as I’d seen in the literature, but so do ALL the antidepressants, including the first generation ones.

It seems that in order to have REM sleep, you have to deplete serotonin (and have melatonin kick in) and if you’re on an antidepressant, the antidepressant is upping your serotonin levels, thus lowering your melatonin levels, which is counterproductive to getting good REM sleep. “So, with the approval of my wife’s physician, we started to slowly ween her off her medication.

For about three weeks, nothing dramatic happened. A week ago yesterday, she woke up one morning and within minutes I knew she was ‘back.’ She was just remarkably different. Much more animated, much more engaged, much livelier.

And SHE knew the difference.

That night she used Zeo again and she showed about 10 minutes of REM sleep.

Hooray! Not huge, but at least SOMETHING.

It has continued to increase, up to 15 minutes two nights ago, 20 minutes the night before last, and 45 minutes last night!

She has continued to be much more energetic, totally present and responsive, with her memory working as it should. The hand tremors also entirely disappeared.

Again, research literature points out that antidepressant drugs can have a noticable affect on sleep quality.

NONE of the doctors raised the meds as a possibility. The sleep study center should have mentioned it in their report. The neurologist should have flagged it.

Without Zeo, we would not have had the information we needed. Since tapering down the medication, my wife’s been consistently getting some REM every night.

We’re hoping that this trend will continue – and that our experiences will help others.

Tell Us Your Story

We love stories like this because it reinforces what we believe:

“When you know your sleep, you can change your sleep.”

Joel’s wife, for example, wasn’t getting good REM sleep because she was on antidepressants.  However, that wasn’t even considered as a root cause.

Only after seeing her Zeo sleep data did the light bulb go on.  Her sleep issues were not what they (and doctors) originally thought.  Armed with this information, Joel and his wife were able to make small but meaningful changes – and reap the benefits of good sleep.

We also believe in the power of personal experiences to guide others. After all, what hinders my sleep could be completely different from what hinders another person’s sleep.

While you might not have the same experience as Joel or his wife, someone else might.

That’s why we’re always asking for your story.  Your own experience, however humble, could be someone’s light bulb; their “ah-ha” moment.

So we want to know:

What was it like when you first looked at your sleep data?

Post it in the comments, share it on Facebook, or email it directly to us at mystory@myzeo.com.

We look forward to reading about your experiences and learning from what you’ve discovered.

Thanks for sharing!

Keith (Ave ZQ: 97) is a writer and member of the Zeo Marketing team. When it comes to sleep, he’s a Viking.

I had a plan. I really did.

Convinced that my girlfriend got sub-par sleep, I was going to have her use Zeo for a month, show her just how bad her sleep was, then write about it for you all to read.

Although it may not seem like I’m Boyfriend of the Year, I am a great sleeper. Didn’t think that my girlfriend could say the same about herself.

Turns out I was wrong.

Perception vs Reality – Not always a Pretty Thing

I was expecting her to have a decent ZQ, but something on the lower end of her age range.  Not horrible sleep, but certainly less – and of a lower  quality- than what she could get.

She ended up with an average of 96. My own average is a 97. I was blown away.

How could this have happened, I asked myself. Did I wake up in Oppositeland?

No.

The truth of the matter is that she is actually a pretty good sleeper.  Her secret weapon?

It’s me!

Your Bed Partner is Your Secret Sleep Weapon

Social scientists have noticed that one partner’s behavior can influence the other – and it looks like this was a classic example of good habits rubbing off.

My girlfriend and I have been living together for almost six months. During that time, she’s adapted to my sleeping schedule and now goes to bed and wakes up at roughly the same times as I do.  Keeping a set bedtime and risetime – even on the weekends- is a hallmark of good sleep hygiene and good sleep.

Now that she’s turning in at about the same time I am – instead of staying up much later and cutting into her total sleep time – she gets way better sleep now than before.

Our bedroom is also much more attuned to sleeping.  My girlfriend now benefits from blackout curtains – to cut down on wake-ups due to light – as well as a fan to help drown out any noise.  No doubt that’s also contributed to her good sleep, too.

My Slice of Humble Pie

So what does her sleep now look like?

On a whole, she gets about seven and a half to eight hours of sleep per night. When you break it down, it looks something like this:

• almost 2 hours of Deep sleep
• almost 3 hours of REM sleep
• about 3 hours of Light sleep.
• about 20 minutes in Wake, on average.

As you can see, my girlfriend is sleeping much better than I imagined

Check out my sleep below, then look at my girlfriend’s graph above.  Similar sleep schedule, similar ZQs and similar sleep quality.  Our sleep architecture is a little different, but certainly not outside the realm of “typical”.

A typical night of sleep for me

So while my little experiment backfired — my girlfriend now has dibs on the “I told you so”–it succeeded in different ways.

My editor, Andi, said it best: “That’s the great thing about science: even when it doesn’t turn out the way you expect, it still tells you something interesting.”

*Sigh*

Indeed.

Related Posts

Keith (Ave ZQ: 97) is a writer and the newest member of the Zeo Web Content team. When it comes to sleep, he’s a Viking.

Okay, so you’re not happy with your sleep.  Specifically, you’re not happy with the amount of Deep Sleep you get.

Every day, you wake up wanting more.

Where's the Deep?

But what to do about it? I mean, you’ve tried everything under the sun.  Everything.  You’ve even done all 7 things to improve your sleep, and still that Deep Sleep number doesn’t move the way you want it to.

I’m going to share with you the 3 Rules of Deep sleep.  These rules will guide you as you navigate the murky waters of sleep, help you to keep it real, and take action.

Ready, class?

The 3 Rules of Deep Sleep

#1 – You Do Not Talk about Deep Sleep

That’s right; don’t talk about it.  Don’t focus on it.

If you focus on it–and only it–you’ll miss the forest for the trees.

Deep sleep is a lot like your weight; it’s one part of a whole recipe for living.  If you focus too much on what you “Time in Deep” is–and not the whole picture of your sleep architecture, circadian rhythm, your sleep schedule, and how you feel during the day–you’re going to miss out.

You won’t find out how all those pieces fit together and as a result,  you won’t figure out what you can do to sleep better and feel better, day after day.

Seriously.  Stop focusing on that “Time in Deep” number.

#2 -  Deep Sleep Naturally Decreases As You Age

It’s true.  Every stage changes as we age, but none decline quite so dramatically as Deep Sleep.  There’s no hard, fast rule as to why this happens–though educated guesses abound–but it does appear to be natural.

Sleep based on Age and Sex of Zeo Users

Just like you can never be 25 again, your sleep can’t be, either.  A 40 year old will have much less deep sleep than a 30 year old, and a 50 year old even less.

The good news is that Light sleep appears to get “deeper” as we age, potentially helping us retain higher levels of memory processing as we get older.

# 3 – Good Habits lead to Better Quality Sleep

You’ve all heard this before–but it bears repeating because it’s the real deal.

In order to get the best sleep that you can, you need to take care of yourself.  What you do during the day affects you at night, regardless of your age.  It might not look as dramatic on a 20 year old but trust me, they too can feel it.

If you treat your body badly during the day, then there’s little wonder that your sleep reflects such abuse during the night.  Quit beating yourself up.  Your body is a temple–and it’s high time you start treating it that way.  No excuses.

PS:  Those good habits also give you REM & Light sleep (which your body needs!), and are helping to regulate your organs, your memory processing, and your overall health.

Is that it?

But I treat my body right, you say.  I’ve got great sleep hygiene, sleep according to my circadian rhythms, have little or no chronic pain, and I still only get a pitiful amount of Deep.  Now what?

Try treating it badly.  Do everything wrong–and see how it plays out in your sleep.  How you feel the next day.  Chances are, all those good habits are giving you those precious minutes in Deep that your body loves so much.  You know, those ones that you think are insufficient.

Remember:  The first rule of Deep Sleep is You Do Not Talk about Deep Sleep.

Class dismissed.

Related posts

• It’s Past Your Bedtime
• 7 Ways to Improve your Sleep Tonight
• Sleep Architecture the Third:  Back to the Sleep Cycles
• How Age & Sex Affect Sleep Quality and Quantity
• 4 Simple Steps for Better Sleep

Andi (ZQ: 86) is the editor of Zeology. By tweet or by post, email or Expert Answer, she makes sure people get the information they need about sleep.

Howdy- I’m Keith, the new guy on the content team.

I’m also a new Zeo user and I love the data I get from it.   I will admit though, that part of this love affair might come from the fact that, every morning,  Zeo tells me that I have great sleep.

I didn’t pop a pill or let my body “catch up” after short-changing it.  I did this all through simple, easy to follow actions–and I’m going to share my formula with you.  Let’s face it, no one should have to just “deal” with poor sleep and part of my job here at Zeo is to help you all get that better night’s sleep.

Let me make one thing clear: This great sleep is the result of small habits and behavior changes done repeatedly for years.  True, the steps are easy but if you cheat on them, you’ll pay for it with your sleep.

Step One:  Make a (standing) date with your Bed

I go to bed every night at exactly the same time. I mean, okay, it might not always be exactly the same time, but it’s awfully close. I usually start getting ready for bed around 9:15pm and it’s lights out not too long after.  My girlfriend’s not crazy about that, but I make a point of reassuring her that it’s me who needs to go to bed that early, not her.

A steady bedtime--though like most, I too, was guilty of "shifting bed time" one weekend

To help keep that bedtime, I don’t drink caffeine and I rarely drink alcohol–maybe a beer or two on the weekend but that’s it.  I do go to parties, but I’m more a fan of the afternoon affairs so that I can keep my bedtime.  Again, 9:15pm is certainly early for some, but keeping the same bedtime and risetime–even on the weekends–goes a long way towards sleep improvement.

Step Two:  Turn your Bedroom into a Cave

Years ago, I discovered two wonderful things that help me get great sleep: light-blocking curtains and a fan. The light-blocking curtains keep the room as dark as possible, allowing my melatonin to kick in and sending me off to dreamland.

The fan, on the other hand, has two purposes:

1. to keep things nice and cool–even in the winter
2. to cancel out all other noise.

Basically, I turn my bedroom into a sensory deprivation chamber every night and it works like a dream.  I hardly ever wake up during the night, except to use the bathroom.

Step Three:  Add an Exercise Routine to the Mix

For almost 7 years now, I’ve been exercising for about an hour and a half to 2 hours a day, 5 to 6 days a week. I’m pretty convinced that it’s the world’s greatest–and most overlooked–sleeping pill.  As soon as I get up in the morning, boom, I go to the gym.  Even better? A recent study shows that exercising during the morning leads to better sleep than exercising at night.

Step Four:  Shake, Strain, then Serve Night after Night

Okay, I can hear you rolling your eyes over there.  So what’s the payoff for all of this?  An average ZQ of 97.  A recent “bad” night for me was less than 8 hours long and got me a ZQ of 94.   Andi@Zeo said that was sick, but I think she’s just jealous. (Editor’s note:  Dang right I am!)

What this means is that, night after night,  I can count on:

• 1 1/2 -2 hours of Deep sleep
  
• 2-3 hours of REM sleep
• 3-4 hours of Light sleep
• less than 2 wake-ups each night

I do everything in my power to ensure that I sleep like a (32 year old) baby–and it’s great to see that it pays off.  My question to you is, now that you know some of my secrets, what are you going to do differently tonight and tomorrow?

Related Posts

• How can I cut back on caffeine without “crashing”?
• How sleeping like a Pro can boost your game
• Keeping a Schedule Keeps you Healthy
• To Be(nzo) or not to Be(nzo):  A Tempered Approach to Sleeping Pills
• What Can One Do To Promote Good Sleep?
  

Keith (Ave ZQ: 97) is a writer and the newest member of the Zeo Web Content team. When it comes to sleep, he’s a Viking.

Sleep Holds Secrets–Night Rhythms not so different than Waking Rhythms

It used to be you’d go to a sleep clinic, stay overnight and get totally wired up to accurately measure your sleep cycles.  And that’s still the case for sleep apnea and diagnosis of severe sleep problems.  I met with a Pulmonologist (a sleep doctor who specializes in breathing) at the Carolinas Medical Center about a month ago to chat about sleep, and was amazed at the sleep charts he sat and showed me on his office computer. You think you’re not sleeping…..oh man, there are people with serious problems.  More on that soon.

I’ve been measuring my nightly sleep using an EEG  headband (Zeo) for over 6 months, and there is a definite pattern, with much more activity than you’d imagine.  It’s more ragged, with shorter bursts of deep sleep and REM sleep, than I thought.  I realized night rhythms are not so different than waking rhythms.

36 Nights-Charlotte

Nothing holds my attention more than a few minutes… 5-10 minutes of deep sleep and BAM, I’m dreaming….20 minutes later I’m awake.  All the deep sleep happens early in the night, with REM (dreaming) sleep three, four, five times during the night.  How come I remember none of the dreams? Interesting to get confirmation of how many times I awake during the night.

The excel diagram in this post is 31 nights of EEG measured sleep, using a ZEO – each horizontal stripe is one night, each little numbered box is 5 minutes.

A month of my sleep data, captured using Zeo. Purple = Deep sleep, yellow = REM, orange = Wake, green = Light. Red = Awake

Color & Sleep Phase Break Down

• Purple is deep sleep
• yellow is REM
• orange is awake
• red is up and active, and
• green is light sleep….or as the Pulmonologist described, trash sleep.

All the good stuff happens during REM and deep sleep.  If you’re sick, you heal while sleeping, you gain procedural memory during sleep, grow taller,  resolve conflict with dreams, and organize memory.  Neurologists measure sleep as more active than waking.

To me, the pattern of sleep is the most captivating, it reflects basic organic and human qualities.  The proportions of the pattern itself is inherently recognizable and familiar.

Laurie Frick draws from neuroscience to construct intricately hand-built works and installations to explore the nature of pattern and the mind.  Her recent exhibition was an experiment in rhythm using time studies of daily activity logs and sleep charts, and captured the familiar human rhythm stretching across both realms.

Today’s post comes from Seth Roberts, a professor of psychology at Tsinghua University in Beijing and a self-tracking champ. Recently, Seth went to a Quantified Self Meet-Up, saw a presentation by a Zeo user, and wrote this post as a result.  He blogs about his and others’ experiments at blog.sethroberts.net

Christine Peterson’s poster of her Zeo research (download poster) was one of the highlights of the QS conference for me, as I said in an earlier post:

She measured her sleep with a Zeo for three months. Her poster showed how various things, such as caffeine consumption, correlated with sleep measurements, such as REM time. I believe the most important Zeo measurement is how long you are awake during the night. … Christine’s data showed a strong correlation between her score on Zeo’s Sleep Stealer‘s index (…) and how long she was awake at night. With a high score, she was awake twice as long (about 1.5 hours) as with a low score.

Here’s why.

The correlation between Sleep Stealer score and time awake.

When her Sleep Stealer score was 5 or less, she was awake about an hour during the night. When her score was more than 5, she was awake about two hours— a big difference. There should be a big difference, but you could fail to see it for a thousand reasons. The large difference is a validation of the whole thing — above all, an indication that her Zeo is working correctly.

C Peterson - Total Z v Sleep Stealers

Even when her Sleep Stealer score is low, she is awake a long time.

This means there are major determinants of sleep depth not captured by the Sleep Stealer score. With the right Sleep Stealer score — assuming the correlation reflects cause and effect — she can improve from two hours to one hour (one hour difference) but that leaves one hour. This implies that the determinants of time awake not in the Sleep Stealer score are just as important as those that it contains.

Even when she is at the best level of important factors, she is awake a long time.

When she had no drinks, she was awake 56 minutes/night.  When other people didn’t disrupt her sleep at all, she was awake 54 minutes/night.

C Peterson -Time in Wake v Alcohol

C Peterson - Time in Wake v Disruption

The average wake time for women 50-59 is half an hour.

That’s a lot of lost time, day after day, night after night. Note however that the data is from Zeo users, who may have worse sleep than average.  (Editor’s note: see What’s Your ZQ for more information about Zeo users’ sleep quality)

How Christine Compares to Her Age and Gender

It only took three months to collect the data.

This isn’t on the poster. Yet this is a solid contribution, in the sense that I learned from it. With perhaps nine months of data and better data analysis, it might be publishable. The main point such a paper would presumably make is that even when you do everything right (Sleep Stealer score = 0) you’re still awake a lot. This point is nowhere in the sleep literature.

Seth’s advice for better sleep

Christine, if you would like to sleep better I suggest:

1. Don’t eat breakfast until at least three hours after you wake up.
2. Get at least one hour of sunlight early in the morning — e.g., 6 to 7 am. You can do this by working outside.  (I work outside several hours every morning.)
3. Stand on one leg to exhaustion four or more times per day. (I do it six times/day.) You can do this while reading — it should not reduce your free time.

Related Posts

• A Tale of Two Sleepers
• Age and Sex affect Sleep Quantity and Quality
• Why would using morning light help me fall asleep?
• What can one do to promote good sleep?
• Sleeping into Fitness

Seth Roberts is a professor of psychology at Tsinghua University, in Beijing and author of The Shangri-La Diet. His blog discusses personal science, self-experimentation, and other things. He has been studying his sleep a long time.

As the Research Scientist of Zeo, a big part of my job is to make sure that we keep all our efforts grounded in scientific integrity. This means staying abreast of the latest in scientific thought around sleep to make sure that what we do conforms to the high standards of the people who sleep for a living.

For instance, did you know that:

• Awakenings need to last at least 5 minutes to be remembered upon awakening?
• Anesthesia does not put you to sleep, but puts you in to a sort of reversible coma?

Neat stuff, to be sure–as well as validation for how we measure sleep.  If you think about the first fact, you’d probably remember that Zeo only pays attention to awakenings that are 2 minutes or longer, a confirmation that it’s the longer awakenings that we remember.

Go to SLEEP

But where can one go to meet and mingle with other sleep scientists?  Why to SLEEP, the annual meeting of the Association of Professional Sleep Societies (APSS), of course!  It’s here that sleep scientists present new studies and information about the wonderful–but complex–state of sleep.

Zeo’s been attending–and presenting new sleep data and science–for the last few years and true to form, I came to Sleep 2011 with a little research of my own–with help from gracious Zeo users.

• Fabregas, Objective sleep by age and sex in a large at-home sample (Download PDF)
  

News Flash: Biological Sex and Age are partly to blame for your poor sleep

Basically, sleep gets worse as we age, and men tend to sleep better than women (sorry, ladies).

If you look at the graphs below, you’ll notice that women tend to get the short end of the stick as they get older:  their Total Sleep Time (TST) decreases, they stay awake longer during the night, and get less REM overall.

However, look at the Deep sleep graph:  where men tend to just decline decade after decade, women actually level out in their 50s and may even get a little more than before.

We got all this information by using DOZER (our Data Observations of the Zeo Extraction Registry) which is the largest home-collected sleep database in the world.  All the data was made anonymous–because we do respect user privacy– and we then looked at the cross-sectional effects of age and biological sex on several measure of sleep quality.

What do you get out of this?  Well, at a basic level, these data sets form the basis for your age and sex comparisons in nightly and weekly reports as well as in the coaching program.  So if you really want to know how you compare to people your age–not lab rats or “sick people” from a lab study–keep uploading your data!  The more data and stats there are from users like you, the better you can assess your own sleep quality.

Lastly,  these data serve to show that Zeo is a valid and sensitive tool for measuring sleep as the data conform nicely to previous reports–always a key thing to have in any science-based field!

Team Zeo, Represent

Of course, I wouldn’t be going to a sleep meeting without doing a little plugging for Zeo. But we weren’t alone this year–turns out some other folks are starting to catch on to easy sleep phasing in the home.

As always, you can find the original abstracts by taking a look at this year’s Abstract Supplement at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM)’s peer reviewed journal website: journalsleep.org.  Just one more way Zeo steers clear from tinfoil hat territory.

• Gumenyuk, et al, Electrophysiological evidence of improvement of the brain mechanism of auditory pre-attentive processing in habitual short sleepers after sleep extension:  Study II

• Curtis, et al, Comparison of an ambulatory sleep-stage recorder with outpatient actigraphy and sleep logs across a wide range of sleep phenotypes

And we got a couple mentions even in projects where Zeo wasn’t used:

• Gumenyuk, et al, Electrophysiological evidence of impact on auditory pre-attentive brain mechanism in habitual short sleepers:  Study I

• Popovic, et al, Sleep/Wake classification with head actigraphy

To keep yourself abreast of the latest sleep science, stay tuned to Zeology and our Facebook page.  We’re always posting the latest sleep science news, articles, and findings and how they relate to Zeo, so keep yourself in the know!  It’s one way to becoming a better sleep expert yourself.

Related Posts

• Zeo Sleep Research Center, Part 1
• What’s Your ZQ?
• How Seasonal Allergies and Colds affect Sleep
• How long Zeo Users spend Snoozing each morning
• Daylight Savings:  Where’s the Extra Hour?

Steve (ZQ: 100) is our resident Research Scientist, working to help people understand the science behind Zeo, as well as the science of sleep. He is one of the driving forces behind our Sleep Research Center.

Recently, it seems that tons of new and existing companies, industry movers and shakers, and others wired to the digital life have come to us with this idea:

Shouldn’t all of your health data be in one place? Put it here (with us)!

We’re all for that–but what do you do once all that data’s in one central spot?  Are you just going to leave it there and let it collect internet dust?    As Adam Bosworth of Keas recently said (and it well) :

People don’t want to store data; they want to have fun.

I’d like to take that one step farther and argue that people also want to set and achieve their goals–and they want an online platform that helps them do just that.  At Zeo, that’s our main mission. We want you to achieve your goal of a better night’s sleep, and reap the rewards that it brings.

Let Me Have it All

One of those rewards is a more balanced life.  It’s what we all crave in this modern, hectic world.  More time for friends and family, more time for ourselves and our development, and an inner peace to carry us through.  Taking control of your sleep is one (key) way to achieve a sense of balance–that Power Down Hour™ really makes you put down the laptop and quit working– but what about the other factors?  How can one pull all the pieces together and make them work?

Fortunately, two of our API pals have just the thing to help you out.  Even better?  Both work with your Zeo sleep data as well.

GravityEight Launches Wellbeing Platform

We’re proud to announce that our pals at GravityEight are going holistic.  They want to help you achieve wellbeing – but not just the sort of wellbeing that comes from being healthy.  They want you to have the wellbeing that comes from amazing relationships, solid finances, and meaningful work.  Gravity Eight aims to be your dashboard and partner on eight key vectors for well-being.

More importantly:  they just launched their product to the public after a lengthy private beta, so sign up here for your scorecard.

We love this because it’s a customizable, whole person approach that has the potential to be an extremely powerful and positive influence on our lives.  If you’re looking for that central command dashboard to get your life in order and up to speed, definitely check it out and keep Gravity Eight on your radar screen!

Runkeeper Launches Health Graph and Open API

As if that wasn’t enough, we’re pumped to announce that things just keep getting better at Runkeeper.  Like GravityEight, they’re going for the whole enchilada when it comes to health and wellness.  But don’t take our word for it.  Here’s what Jason Jacobs has to say:

Imagine a system that can identify correlations between a user’s eating habits, workout schedule, social interactions and more, to deliver an ecosystem of health and fitness apps, websites, and sensor devices that really work, based on a user’s own historical health and fitness data.

Boom!  that’s what Runkeeper is delivering with their Health Graph.  Put all of your data on the digital table so you can do something with it.   Find correlations, find out what really works for you, and achieve your goals the way you always wanted to.

And not only Runkeeper can play this game – they have wisely opened up the system so that others can develop Health Graph apps that access all of this rich data and deliver consumer solutions.  We can’t wait to watch this one develop.

All in all, we are excited and proud to see our partners kicking ass and taking names – and look forward to more going forward.  We truly believe that people are smart, capable, and determined enough to succeed if they’ve got the right tools to help them out.

So don’t just let your data sit there, Zeo user.  Put it to work and reap the rewards; you’re future self will soon thank you for it.

Related Posts:

• Come and Get It:  Zeo Open API
• Another Way to Sleep Fit:  Runkeeper Integrates with Zeo
• All Together Now: Zeo Integrates with DigiFit
• When Open is Awesome
• Collective Wisdom for a Good Night’s Sleep

Ben (ZQ: 75) is one of the co-founders of Zeo and company CTO. He’s passionate about keeping Zeo at the forefront of wireless health and technology, and about giving users control over their data.

True Story:

I first met Jason Jacobs of Runkeeper at a South End breakfast spot a few years ago.  At that time Runkeeper was just an iPhone app that tracked your runs (now it’s a comprehensive fitness platform) and Zeo had yet to be released.  Oddly enough, during that breakfast (or many thereafter) I hardly gave any thought to our products working together.  Sure – fitness and sleep do influence each other – but at that time we each had to focus on launching our products and building our business.

All that said, we kept in touch.  Last summer when I showed Jason an early version of our Open Web API,  I also found myself quoting some stats about sleep and sports, like how sleep restriction can lead to a 3 fold increase in attention lapse and slow reactivity.  Not surprisingly, it didn’t take much to convince Jason that Runkeeper should be one of our first integration partners.

Promise Kept

I am happy to announce today that Zeo is now integrated into Runkeeper and available here on the Runkeeper Store. Runkeeper has also integrated with Fitbit and Withings to add activity and weight to the quantification love-fest.

It’s now even easier to track your exercise routine and see just how much of a boost you got from the night before (or vise-versa).  Start discovering the ins and outs of how your body balances itself to stay healthy– all from the comfort of your smartphone.  You don’t even need to download the Zeo iPhone app; just enter your mySleep.myZeo log-in data from the Runkeeper app and it will do the rest.  How’s that for easy?

Sleep Data & Workout Data--Together At Last

Oh, and for those who want that deep sleep boost (you know who you are), sleep doctors have long recommended moderate exercise to their patients to help improve sleep quality.  Just saying.

So get up out of your chair; chances are you could use a little walk (or run) after sitting all day.  Enjoy!

Related Posts:

• Sleep and Marathon Training:  Going the Distance
• Zeo Open API:  Come and Get It
• All Together Now:  Zeo Integrates with Digifit
• Eat, Practice, Sleep
• Sleeping into Fitness

Ben (ZQ: 75) is one of the co-founders of Zeo and company CTO. He’s passionate about keeping Zeo at the forefront of wireless technology, and about giving users control over their data.