Though the picture at right seems a little absurd, there is solid science behind the Sleeptracker, a wristwatch designed to help you achieve the optimal amount of sleep. The watch works by collecting data about your unique sleep patterns, recording “almost-awake” moments to determine your sleep cycles. By measuring these cycles over time, the watch can wake you during an almost-awake moment, avoiding any sleep cycle disturbance that may cause grogginess in the morning. Pretty cool, right?
Sure, if you’ve got an hour window within which to set your alarm. The Sleeptracker comes in two models: Sleeptracker Standard and Sleeptracker Elite/Pro (the Elite/Pro models vary cosmetically). Surprisingly, the lower end Standard sports a 60-minute alarm window, while the Elite/Pro offer a 90-minute window. That’s all well and good for someone who can wake between the hours of 6:30 and 8:00, but I’d bet most of us run a much tighter schedule. You might make the argument that with better sleep you could accomplish more during your day, allowing more leeway with your sleep schedule. I have a bad feeling, though, that with better sleep I’d just try to get more stuff done, squandering the extra energy/hours with a healthy dose of stress.
For someone with a more flexible day, though, this thing could be great. I’m all for a gadget that can improve my waking mood. I hate waking feeling underslept, but sleeping through a meeting usually has more immediate consequences.
What are you, Sleeptracker? An attempt to undercut the cultural importance of punctuality? A statement about our attitudes toward time in general (if so, consider dropping the the display for seconds, maybe even minutes)? A really clever device that would help reduce my rambling via a well-rested frontal lobe? Whatever the answer, it’s definitely cool, and quite possibly worth the $179 price tag.
