Sleep Coach Can Be a Productivity Tool

As much as tech giants such as Apple(AAPL), Microsoft(MSFT) and Google(GOOG) claim their new technologies change the world of work, plain old sleep turns out to be just as important. Get too little and it's tough to make it through the longer projects. Get too much and nothing gets done. So any tool that claims to help me get more -- and better -- rest gets my attention.

The Zeo Personal Sleep Coach ($199 for the basic version, plus $7.95 per month for guided sleep coaching) is the invention of a group of self-described sleep-deprived Brown University students. The tool, a sort of mobile, DIY sleep lab, collects comprehensive data on your sleeping habits and helps you self-diagnosis and address whatever is getting between you and a good night's sleep.

The Zeo Personal Sleep Coach includes an alarm clock/base station, a standard memory card and a black headband you wear while sleeping. All this can help you sleep ... eventually.

My assistant Alex and I ordered up a demo unit from the Newton, Mass.-based business and over the past few weeks have given it the snooze once-over. We found the tool takes real effort to use, but is interesting ... and a potential alternative to pharmaceutical sleep aids or for those not ready to commit to overnight visits to a sleep lab.

WHAT YOU GET
This is a fresh approach to getting a good night's sleep.

The Zeo consists of an alarm clock/base station, a standard memory card and a black headband about the size and color of a heart rate monitor. You wear the band overnight, which takes some getting used to. While you sleep, the system collects sophisticated data on your brain patterns, sleeping habits and restfulness. It transmits all that to the Zeo base station, which in turn records the data to an SD card for Web upload.