That $5 pre-order is far too easy to do. I bought one without stopping to research other products like the http://www.fitbit.com/. Brilliantly designed pricing.
It's a lot like Glastonbury ticketing. Deposits in autumn, full payment in January. This is extra profitable because in January many people are short on cash post-christmas and either can not or choose not to pay the full amount. You get to keep the non-refundable deposit and then sell the ticket/product again to another person.
As an aside, any idea on how hackable the Wakemate is? Presumably other devices could talk to it over bluetooth, eg a homemade arduino based alarm clock. Will the bluetooth protocol and data format used be published?
It took me about 15 seconds from the initial onload to typing my PayPal password, and I'm normally just seething with deliberative-yuppie-purchasing-angst. My normal minimum conversion time is at least an hour of research and a week of wall-clock time.
If you can hack my purchasing process so effectively, I'm pretty confident that you'll do well by my sleep cycle. Bravo!
It's so easy to do, in fact, that I had already paid before I realized that the device isn't scheduled to ship until 3 days after my daughter is scheduled to ship.
I bet my graphs are going to be REALLY interesting.
The Fitbit looked very fun, but the site didn't mention an alarm function. I'm already envisioning a long slog toward convergence, because some day I want my phone to do calorie-counting and smart-alarming. After all, I already keep it near me all day and night...
I was fortunate enough to know these guys while they were building the wakemate prototypes, and even luckier to have had the opportunity to sleep with one (of the devices) for a week. It has made a tremendous difference in how I feel when I wake up. Congrats guys!
I was fortunate enough to know these guys while they were building the wakemate prototypes, and even luckier to have had the opportunity to sleep with one
Joking aside, if this actually works and you value your time it should pay for itself more or less straight away. I'll be watching closely.
edit on re-reading it looks like the parent noticed that too...oh well.
I really like the idea, but putting "(works on all phones)" on your front page is kind of shady if the actual requirements are bluetooth and internet access and third-party app support. No phone I've ever owned has all those features.
Those features have been practically ubiquitous on GSM phones for about five years (except for the cheapest 3rd world models). That's as close to "all phones" as you can get.
I've heard complaints that it doesn't accurately monitor your sleep cycles because it uses an accelerometer which obviously doesn't work if you don't move enough.
There is a product called Zeo that supposedly detects your brainwaves but then people complain about having to wear a strap on your head. http://www.myzeo.com/
Anyone want to share their experience with these sleep aids?
I bought the Zeo a couple months back based on reading about here on HN.
What a huge difference in the morning! I used to be the kind of person that needed a 20 min hot shower to properly wake up. Now I wake up mostly alert and almost never groggy.
I noticed the change most this week since I flew to Philly for Thanksgiving with family and don't have my Zeo. The last few mornings without it have been hit or miss.
The pretty graphs and statistics were interesting for the first couple weeks, especially to compare how alcohol and caffeine affect my sleep, but the novelty wears off. The smart wakeup is by far the best feature and if the Wakemate can do a similar job, it'll be a cheaper solution that I can take on the road.
My father and I both enthusiastically tried the sleeptracker when it first came out. I am horrible for waking up in the morning, and this did not help one bit.
The article asks why they did not put the alarm in the watch - the sleeptracker chooses that exact strategy and it did not work well for either of us. One, the alarm was not that loud (probably cannot be that loud in such a design). Two, if you had your wrist under your pillow it was inaudible. And three, the alarm is trivially accessible and easy to turn off - not a good thing for an inventive and persistent snooze buttoner like myself.
The product was a huge disappointment to the both of us. The price point and design for this product are encouraging - I will probably try it out.
I've used the zeo for a while. Love it, but in the end I move the headband off my head in my sleep (active sleeper) and would wake up with no data 1/3 of the time. That is frustrating. From what I read this is true for about 10% of users.
As far as the Zeo goes, it is a great product. Very interesting future (there are some obvious 'this is a first release' flaws) but overall, it rocks. Knowing to the minute how much you slept with REM and deep sleep markers is quite interesting and fun.
I've got an extra in Boulder if anyone wants to try it out.
which obviously doesn't work if you don't move enough.
That's interesting, because I suspect I may be one of those. Any idea how many people have that problem and if I can determine upfront whether this product will work for me?
What kind of battery does it use and how do you charge it?
How long before it needs to be charged. Your website is quite informative about the science but seems to leave out this basic operation information.
Looks cool anyway, with free shipping to Belgium I'll definitly order one.
I worked at a sleep company up until 2008 and there are a lot of startups and big sleep companies getting into lowcost devices that a customer would own or rent instead of going into a sleep lab. They would do more diagnosis or pre-diagnosis rather than just wakeup timing but I think some had that feature. I know there is a watch that does this.
One tip I would do if I were them were to contact all those huge sleep lab companies and try to get them interested. Insurance covered prescribed factory sleep labs drive the industry.
I think this is pretty significant advice. My daughter broke her foot one day before getting on a plane to Barcelona, where we planned on doing a lot of swimming, I had a waterproof cast cover over-nighted and they sent two. One for me and a free one for the foot doctor. The product worked so well, it literally saved our vacation and I couldn't say enough good things to the doctor when we got back. I'm sure giving the free sample to the doctor was a win for them, especially considering the doctor had never heard of the product.
Of all the recent YC announcements this is the first one that has me go: Yes! solve a real world problem. Runner up is the flight delay guys, but I no longer fly a lot for business so it is not as much of a factor as it used to be.
Congratulations, excellent idea and a very nicely priced implementation.
I sincerely hope you'll sell these by the containerload.
One of the first pages I navigate to when evaluating a product is the About Us page. If I didn't know that Wakemate was a YC funded company I would not take the product very seriously. Luckily the 'How it works' page (http://www.wakemate.com/about/), and the references cited there make up for the absence of an About Us page (that would hint at your credibility - at least say you are YC funded!). I think it's worth a try! Pre-ordered one
I pre-ordered, but there was absolutely no info about whether or not it ships internationally (even after paying). Hopefully they'll be shipping outside the US!
I have been using a Now & Zen alarm clock for the last 3 years. http://www.now-zen.com/ (It looks like they are now calling the one I have the 'zen timepiece.') I was fed up with electronic noises. These clocks have a brass bowl that produces very pleasant gongs to wake you up. And it doesn't jab you awake like most all other alarm clocks I could find. It gongs and then waits a few minutes. If you haven't gotten up after a few minutes, it gongs again, and waits a couple more minutes. It gradually gongs more frequently over a period of 10 minutes.
Sometimes I am up at the first gong and sometimes it takes several. Now, hooking up my bowl gong to the wakemate could make for a great combination.
The science has been done. The tests are clear. Polyphasic sleepers suffer performance losses in mental tasks compared to normal sleepers. In particular, it significantly impairs long-term memory coding.
Charlatans like Steve Pavlina always refused to do even basic scientific testing. His results simply can't be trusted, especially since he has a massive vested interest in it being effective.
If there is some reason you need to sleep less than 3 hours per day, then polyphasic is the best way to do that. However you will always have reduced performance compared to those who get a full 7 hour sleep.
If you want a sleep schedule optimized for creative/intellectual performance, free-running sleep is the best available. Piotr Wozniak has plenty of science of his website showing that this is the case.
"The device has modes for both ‘power naps’ (which last around 30 minutes)"
I'm guessing polyphasic sleepers can use this, but no idea if they provide support specifically for polyphasic sleepers. Just curious, are you a polyphasic sleeper?
"WakeMate is launching with support for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile, and a standard Java app for non-smart phones"
There is no polyphasic sleep feature, but you could definitely use it track your sleep cycles and optimize your polyphasic sleep. Yes there is an android version.
Just a question that popped into my head: why choose to release the product on so many mobile platforms? That becomes very expensive development-wise, whereas the most active platforms cover most of the target market.
One thing I don't understand: how does the wristband/app tell when you are awake and when you are asleep? The screenshot shows several spots of "time awake" during the night, how does it know this?
Preordered, anyway. I've always wanted to try this but the price point of similar gadgets have been over the "cool thing to try" level (>2-300 bucks).
It must be extremely motivating to see all of these $5 payments come into your account, too :)
Congrats on finding a hair-on-fire problem, and totally rooting for you guys. Just 2 weeks back I ordered an aXbo (http://www.axbo.com/axbo/CMS/CMS.aspx?Language=E) for the same purpose, but this is a much more convenient implementation.
First off, I love this product. But before I click purchase, I want to know: how good of a proxy is the wrist accelerometer for brain wave activity?
Someone else asked this already but I didn't see a response. Ideally, I would love to know what the quantitative results were from your testing. For instance, if sleepers rate their grogginess after waking up every day, what kind of an improvement do you see in those ratings? What is the distribution like? Are there a certain percentage of people who don't respond to the Wakemate because for some personal reason their wrist movements don't correlate with brain wave activity?
I think this data would help sell a lot more of these since that's definitely what made me pause - and I was very ready to purchase.
[+] [-] iamdanw|16 years ago|reply
It's a lot like Glastonbury ticketing. Deposits in autumn, full payment in January. This is extra profitable because in January many people are short on cash post-christmas and either can not or choose not to pay the full amount. You get to keep the non-refundable deposit and then sell the ticket/product again to another person.
As an aside, any idea on how hackable the Wakemate is? Presumably other devices could talk to it over bluetooth, eg a homemade arduino based alarm clock. Will the bluetooth protocol and data format used be published?
[+] [-] blasdel|16 years ago|reply
It took me about 15 seconds from the initial onload to typing my PayPal password, and I'm normally just seething with deliberative-yuppie-purchasing-angst. My normal minimum conversion time is at least an hour of research and a week of wall-clock time.
If you can hack my purchasing process so effectively, I'm pretty confident that you'll do well by my sleep cycle. Bravo!
[+] [-] spydertennis|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brandon|16 years ago|reply
I bet my graphs are going to be REALLY interesting.
[+] [-] BigDamnDeal|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lanstein|16 years ago|reply
as evidenced by this thread :)
[+] [-] aberman|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SandB0x|16 years ago|reply
I was fortunate enough to know these guys while they were building the wakemate prototypes, and even luckier to have had the opportunity to sleep with one
Joking aside, if this actually works and you value your time it should pay for itself more or less straight away. I'll be watching closely.
edit on re-reading it looks like the parent noticed that too...oh well.
[+] [-] sounddust|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] prodigal_erik|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pavlov|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] codexon|16 years ago|reply
I've heard complaints that it doesn't accurately monitor your sleep cycles because it uses an accelerometer which obviously doesn't work if you don't move enough.
There is a product called Zeo that supposedly detects your brainwaves but then people complain about having to wear a strap on your head. http://www.myzeo.com/
Anyone want to share their experience with these sleep aids?
[+] [-] nixme|16 years ago|reply
What a huge difference in the morning! I used to be the kind of person that needed a 20 min hot shower to properly wake up. Now I wake up mostly alert and almost never groggy.
I noticed the change most this week since I flew to Philly for Thanksgiving with family and don't have my Zeo. The last few mornings without it have been hit or miss.
The pretty graphs and statistics were interesting for the first couple weeks, especially to compare how alcohol and caffeine affect my sleep, but the novelty wears off. The smart wakeup is by far the best feature and if the Wakemate can do a similar job, it'll be a cheaper solution that I can take on the road.
[+] [-] billjings|16 years ago|reply
The article asks why they did not put the alarm in the watch - the sleeptracker chooses that exact strategy and it did not work well for either of us. One, the alarm was not that loud (probably cannot be that loud in such a design). Two, if you had your wrist under your pillow it was inaudible. And three, the alarm is trivially accessible and easy to turn off - not a good thing for an inventive and persistent snooze buttoner like myself.
The product was a huge disappointment to the both of us. The price point and design for this product are encouraging - I will probably try it out.
[+] [-] andrewhyde|16 years ago|reply
As far as the Zeo goes, it is a great product. Very interesting future (there are some obvious 'this is a first release' flaws) but overall, it rocks. Knowing to the minute how much you slept with REM and deep sleep markers is quite interesting and fun.
I've got an extra in Boulder if anyone wants to try it out.
[+] [-] Confusion|16 years ago|reply
That's interesting, because I suspect I may be one of those. Any idea how many people have that problem and if I can determine upfront whether this product will work for me?
[+] [-] ryanwaggoner|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Steve0|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lunchbox|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Caligula|16 years ago|reply
One tip I would do if I were them were to contact all those huge sleep lab companies and try to get them interested. Insurance covered prescribed factory sleep labs drive the industry.
[+] [-] flooha|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unohoo|16 years ago|reply
How is wrist movement co-related to sleep patterns ? Is there any scientific study / data out there that explain the co-relation ?
Co-relation of pulse rhythm is more obvious - cant say the same about wrist movement.
Anyone care to explain ?
[+] [-] gcheong|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacquesm|16 years ago|reply
Congratulations, excellent idea and a very nicely priced implementation.
I sincerely hope you'll sell these by the containerload.
[+] [-] physcab|16 years ago|reply
If actigraphy is an established sleep-study technique, then you have to wonder why there aren't more players.
[+] [-] dskhatri|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] petenixey|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tptacek|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sounddust|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jedc|16 years ago|reply
Now I just can't wait to get it!
[+] [-] emmett|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zargon|16 years ago|reply
Sometimes I am up at the first gong and sometimes it takes several. Now, hooking up my bowl gong to the wakemate could make for a great combination.
[+] [-] Asa-Nisse|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] p0ppe|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SwellJoe|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] forensic|16 years ago|reply
http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic.htm
The science has been done. The tests are clear. Polyphasic sleepers suffer performance losses in mental tasks compared to normal sleepers. In particular, it significantly impairs long-term memory coding.
Charlatans like Steve Pavlina always refused to do even basic scientific testing. His results simply can't be trusted, especially since he has a massive vested interest in it being effective.
If there is some reason you need to sleep less than 3 hours per day, then polyphasic is the best way to do that. However you will always have reduced performance compared to those who get a full 7 hour sleep.
If you want a sleep schedule optimized for creative/intellectual performance, free-running sleep is the best available. Piotr Wozniak has plenty of science of his website showing that this is the case.
[+] [-] stjarnljuset|16 years ago|reply
I'm guessing polyphasic sleepers can use this, but no idea if they provide support specifically for polyphasic sleepers. Just curious, are you a polyphasic sleeper?
"WakeMate is launching with support for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile, and a standard Java app for non-smart phones"
[+] [-] gnemeth|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danielrhodes|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mmelin|16 years ago|reply
Preordered, anyway. I've always wanted to try this but the price point of similar gadgets have been over the "cool thing to try" level (>2-300 bucks).
It must be extremely motivating to see all of these $5 payments come into your account, too :)
[+] [-] martythemaniak|16 years ago|reply
http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/stresseraser_and_sleeptra...
[+] [-] dilanj|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] crxnamja|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] carterac|16 years ago|reply
First off, I love this product. But before I click purchase, I want to know: how good of a proxy is the wrist accelerometer for brain wave activity?
Someone else asked this already but I didn't see a response. Ideally, I would love to know what the quantitative results were from your testing. For instance, if sleepers rate their grogginess after waking up every day, what kind of an improvement do you see in those ratings? What is the distribution like? Are there a certain percentage of people who don't respond to the Wakemate because for some personal reason their wrist movements don't correlate with brain wave activity?
I think this data would help sell a lot more of these since that's definitely what made me pause - and I was very ready to purchase.
Thanks!