A lot of things elude me - doing Zumba without tripping over my feet or cooking a chilli that isn't tasteless, for instance. But one thing I've never had trouble with is sleep. If it's 10pm and I'm at home, you will find me snoozing on the sofa or, if I'm really motivated, tucked into bed. But despite being able to fall into a comfortable slumber easily, mostly sleeping the recommended seven hours and rarely waking in the night, I always have trouble peeling myself out of bed and usually feel quite tired throughout the day. So tired, in fact, that if my life allowed it, I would take at least one kip per day. If only Zest HQ had an allocated 'nap time'...
I decided it was time to get to the bottom of my drowsiness when I heard about the Zeo Sleep Manager. This clever system tracks your sleep patterns using a head sensor and smart phone app. You simply put the sensor over your forehead, turn on the app and hit the hay. In the morning, you're greeted with a graph showing exactly how much time you spent in deep sleep (when the body restores itself), REM sleep (when memories and thoughts from the day are processed), and light sleep. And once you've got to know your sleep patterns, Zeo's online sleep coach can help you identify the 'sleep stealers' that are sapping your sleep, whether it's too much caffeine, stress or going to bed at the wrong time. You can also set the tracker so it wakes you up at the right time in your sleep cycle. Genius!
To test the Zeo, I tracked my sleep over three nights: a normal weekday night, a Saturday night after a few drinks with friends (only two units, I promise!) as well as on a Sunday evening, after a relaxing day that included a 5K run.
According to the Zeo, the quality of my sleep was quite good all three nights. I spent around 20% of it in REM (a normal amount), and the rest a comfortable mix of light and deep sleep and rarely, if ever, woke up throughout the night. Plus, I got an average of seven hours rest per night. It seemed my tiredness has nothing to do with lack of sleep!
Thanks to this breakthrough, I have started addressing other factors that might be making me feel drowsy throughout the day, like sitting for too long at my desk without getting up to walk around, or letting my blood sugar spike and dip by reaching for chocolate instead of nuts during that 4pm lull. I've noticed a major difference in my energy levels and best of all, I can finally stay awake through to the end of Pan Am. Result!
The Zeo Sleep tracker mobile is £89 and available on IOS and soon Android. Zeo Sleep Manager Mobile is available from myzeo.co.uk.
