Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Science of Sleep


Those who are troubled sleepers value sleep more than those who find themselves in dream-landia two minutes after their head hits the pillow. Why? Well, don't we tend to value the things that come our way with a higher degree of difficulty a tad more?

I also have a theory about general compatibility issues. A troubled sleeper will find her/himself more emotionally comfortable when in relationships with good sleepers than with other malaise-sharers. Misery does not love company, after all. The yang seeks the ying. And so forth. Imo, at least.

Having had sleep troubles since, well, birth, I have an active interest in sleep studies and new research. One of the best gifts I received this past birthday was a computer program called Pzizz. Two of my friends purchased the power nap/sleep program for me and this is a product I heartily recommend.

If you travel a lot as well and find yourselves in different time zones and areas with some measure of consistency, Pzizz will come in handy. It doth work! Turn it on and you will be able to catch a few zzz's. And rather quickly.

The Times had a piece on yet a new sleep-monitoring gadget called Zeo. David Pogue reviewed it and he concludes the piece by noting:

"Just watching the Zeo track your sleep cycles doesn’t do anything to help you sleep better. Plotting your statistics on the Web doesn’t help, either.

But the funny thing is, you do wind up getting better sleep — because of what I call the Personal Trainer Phenomenon. People who hire a personal trainer at the gym wind up attending more workouts than people who are just members. Why? Because after spending that much money and effort, you take the whole thing much more seriously.

In the same way, the Zeo winds up focusing you so much on sleep that you wind up making some of the lifestyle changes that you could have made on your own, but didn’t. (“Otherwise,” a little voice in your head keeps arguing, “you’ve thrown away $400.”)"

Read more here.





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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with his point that gadgets prove to be effective when consumers change behaviors to feel less guilty over how much they spent for them.

I know I get to work more when I buy a new computer.... Expensive discipline, I know.

tina said...

I heard about pzizz but wondered if it worked.
thanks

Anonymous said...

Is there any aspect of my life I need not make myself neurotic about?

Will said...

I have pzizz, too. The nap bits are my favorite.

Unknown said...

I'm ordering pzizz this week. We desperately need to catch some z-s around here.