My Sleep Coach Just Told Me to...Well, Sleep!

A friend of mine sent me a link to a new device that aims to improve the quality of sleep you're getting (thanks, Andy).  Say hello to the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach.  Armed with a hypoallergenic wireless headband and an alarm clock-like receiver, you can analyze how your beauty rest is affected by things that go bump in the night (literally, for the dog in the YouTube clip above).

Want to know how long it took you to fall asleep?  Curious about how much deep sleep or REM sleep you got?  Interested in knowing how many times you woke up during the night?  No problem, the Zeo Sleep Coach has it covered.

USAToday and Technology Review both blogged about the Zeo Sleep Coach.  These reviews highlight the interesting features of Zeo's device, but both are stumped by the coaching aspect; It doesn't seem clear how the feedback from the collected data makes you sleep "better".

With the soaring popularity of Nike+, and the anticipation building around the first release of FitBit, it's quite clear that people are looking for clever ways to automatically track data.  It's intriguing to think about tracking our sleep patterns.  After all, that's a metric we can't directly observe ourselves.  Zeo clearly states that the Sleep Coach is not a medical device, and should not be used to diagnose sleeping disorders.  But I'm sure the millions of people with sleep apnea are chomping at the bit on whether any useful information can be pulled out of the collected data.

If anyone has one, or orders one, post your comments!