Jason Oakley : The life of an Aussie geek!

Yesterday morning I was browsing through the top iPhone applications. I checked out the Featured, Top 25 and Top Grossing apps.  In the Top Grossing apps I saw one that interested me. It’s called The Sleep Cycle alarm clock.

“The Sleep Cycle alarm clock is a bio-alarm clock that analyzes your sleep patterns and wakes you when you are in the lightest sleep phase.

Waking up in the lightest sleep phase feels like waking without an alarm clock – it is a natural way to wake up where you feel rested and relaxed.”

It had 83 mostly positive reviews in the Australian iTunes app store so I thought I’d check it out. I don’t always get the best sleep at night so it’ll be nice to see just how interrupted my sleep gets. Of course, it won’t register my sleep apnoea nor how many times I stop breathing, but it just may be able to detect when I am not fully sleeping. The app is AUD $1.19 so that’s not too bad.

First, you put the iPhone on your bed near your pillow. The website says it may not work well on Tempurpedic beds. Mine isn’t exactly Tempurpedic, but it’s the memory foam anyway and seems to work fine. It has a “Test” mode so you can see if the application can detect your movement and it worked nicely.

iPhone placement

You pick the Wake Up music. They have many choices of nice music designed to wake you in the best way. Then, hit the START button and OK and you are ready to go. It records the time you start the analysis and when you wake up, so you will know your total sleeping time.

“During the night you go from light sleep to deep sleep, occasionally entering into a dream state which is called REM-sleep. These are things that your normal alarm clock does not care about, and will go off at the set time regardless of whether you are in a light sleep phase or in the deepest sleep. However, since you move differently in bed during the different phases, the Sleep Cycle alarm clock is able to use the accelerometer in your iPhone to monitor your movement and determine which sleep phase you are in. Sleep Cycle then uses a 30 minute alarm window that ends at your set alarm time and wakes you in your lightest sleep phase.”

Sleep Cycle analysis mode

I tested it out last night. I went to bed at 11:19pm and woke at 7:21am. The alarm was set for 8:00am so I didn’t get to test that properly, but tomorrow when I have to wake around 6:00am for work it will get a proper test.  I had a few weird dreams last night and the graph seems to support this, along with waking partially around 4:00am. I wonder if that’s my sleep apnoea or subconsciously hearing Striker heading out for work? I think he leaves around 4:00am on weekends heh.  Here is the graph of my first recording and analysis:

Jason's Sleep pattern

I often wake up rather cranky and exhausted, feeling like I’ve hardly slept. So, this will be interesting to watch as the nights go on.  Whether or not the alarm waking me at the correct time works successfully, I’m very pleased to have a graph of my sleep patterns nonetheless.  I do hope the waking at the right time part works well all the same. It’d be nice to wake up not feeling groggy.

I also weighed myself yesterday on Striker’s scales. I might buy some more accurate digital scales today, but it said 92.5kg which is still better than the 99kg dad’s electronic scales registered at Christmas.  Today, I’m starting a new phase in my eating habits so we shall see how that goes over the next couple of weeks.  It’s just a matter of retraining my body’s eating procedures and timing.