Ask HN: Do things like WakeMate really work?

Just a note:

I pre-ordered a WakeMate on November 25th, 2009 with a ship date in January. After the ship date passed, I got a "we're sorry" email which said that they tentatively planned to ship them in February. No word until March when they said they'd go out in March. In April, they told me the following:

"Based on your pre-order date (11/25/2009), you should expect your WakeMate no later than 07/30/2010."

I've heard literally nothing since. Their website now says that if I order a WakeMate today I'll get it in September 2010.

I can't speak to whether or not these sleep analysis tools work, but I absolutely can't in good conscience recommend buying this particular device (YC or not).

I owned and briefly used a very similar German-made device called the Axbo: http://www.axbo.com/axbo/CMS/CMS.aspx?Language=E

In my experience, it actually didn't work at all.

I suspect one main problem was that you could only set the alarm to wake you up within a 30-minute window, which meant there was a fairly high probability that the optimal point in your sleep cycle would occur before or after the alarm (given that the average sleep cycle is 60-120 minutes).

That said, it's one of those ideas that just sounds so compelling (Circadian rhythm!?! Sign me up!) It could work, the Axbo execution just didn't cut it for me.

I actually know the Wakemate guys, and I'm really anxious to try their product. I hope it works! For their sake, and for all those sleep-deprived hackers out there like myself!

One question I have for HN, though, is: given their supply chain troubles and the fact that, for all we know, their product may or may not actually work, what do you think about pre-selling a brand new product? Is it ethical? Is it advisable from a long-term strategic perspective (e.g. does it create the wrong expectations settings for your first users?)

I'd be particularly interested to hear from Wakemate!

Try an iphone app like "Sleep Cycle". It's worked just as well for me as the $150 "SleepTracker Pro" I bought a few years ago. Arguably better since the iphone app provides nice graphs and soothing wakeup music.

Does it work? I do feel like both the app and the watch nudge me awake at the right time, but you need to be disciplined enough to actually get up and make use of an unexpected 15-30 minutes in the morning.

I've had the Zeo for about 5 days, so I can only provide feedback relative to that amount of time. It certainly SEEMS accurate with it's recording of my deep/rem/light sleep cycles. There's no way for me to really know though since I'm asleep.

I'm a data fiend, so having the data is worth more to me than the smart-wake feature. I cant speak for the WakeMate, but the Zeo will wake you up to 30 minutes before your target time if it is more optimal than your target time. I've not experienced any benefit from this so far, but like I said, only 5 days use.

I've been using the SleepTracker Pro for about two years now and I love it. Just last week I started to have some issues with it - when I would press the light button it would short and everything would be reset. The CEO called me the next day and said that it didn't matter how old the watch was. Send it in and we'll get you a new one. Pretty cool. So I would highly recommend them.

The other part to this is that these types of alarms will only "go off" at the most optimal time. That doesn't necessarily mean that it is any easier to get out of bed. It took me a few months to get used to this fact. You have to get a mentality that when the alarm goes off, you get up. For instance, if I went to bed at 1am, I would set the alarm for 7:15. I would set my "wake window" for about 1.5 hours beforehand. For the first few months, if my alarm went off at 5:45, I would wake up, feel great, look at my clock and realize that I still had over an hour that I could still sleep. So I'd go back to bed and wake up feeling horrible.

Then, I got some great advice from a friend of mine who said, "Sleep like a dog." In other words, sleep when you are tired. Play when you are awake. This broke the mindset I had had since I was a child where I woke up with my alarm to now, as soon as I start to wake up (whether from my SleepTracker or just naturally), I think 'Am I rested? Did I sleep well?' If I had, then I don't even look at the clock, I just get up. Otherwise, I'll stick to my safety alarm clock that always goes off at 7:15.

I appear to have this software built into my brain. I will quite often wake up before my alarm, sometimes as much as an hour, but most often as little as 1-5 minutes. And it does tend to run in cycles, with me waking up ~30 minutes for a few days in a row and then going back to waking just before the alarm.

Only when I'm really tired, or had trouble sleeping, does the alarm wake me up.

Most of the people I know use their snooze button, though. I've always thought that a really bad idea, but couldn't really say why since I wake up ready to go, and not drowsy. (I don't drink caffeine very often, and I've always been a morning person.) Wouldn't you be defeating this device if you just hit 'snooze' and went back to bed for the remaining time?

I use a lamp with a timer that gets gradually brighter. It turns itself on some time before I want to wake up. Instead of a single point of waking up, there's a window of around an hour when the light gets brighter for me to wake up. One can be rigged up with just a regular lamp and a power outlet timer, although that doesn't give the gradual brightening part.

Of course it's possible to just sleep through the whole thing if sufficiently sleep-deprived, so something like the WakeMate could still be better for waking up less painfully from a shorter than usual night's sleep.

I use sleep cycle on the iPhone and it works great when I'm away. Having said that, if you share a bed with a partner, YMMV - I just don't bother using sleep cycle at home, my wife moves a lot in her sleep.

I ordered a Zeo this week, I'll write up a blog post in 2-3 weeks and do a review if you're interested. I was waiting for wakemate to start shipping but it has been so long that I figured I'd try Zeo for now.

Try Sleep Cycle if you have an iPhone. It's $.99 and works surprisingly well.