Sleep On It, Or I Never Met an Alarm Clock that I Liked

It's pretty obvious why Tapani Salmi and Väinö Virtanen went into research instead of marketing. After all, what self-respecting marketing wonk would actually name a software product HappyWakeUp? It's been my experience that's there's nothing happy about waking up in the morning, unless, of course, the wake-up call includes a fresh cup of coffee and a copy of the New York Times.

According to Salmi (who holds a Ph.D. in sleep Sleep Medicine) and Virtanen (a software developer), HappyWakeUp is a smart alarm clock installed on your mobile phone that goes off when you're almost awake. HappyWakeUp doesn't bother you if you're in deep or REM sleep--times when it is most difficult for you to wake up. Instead, the program analyzes the quality and cycles of your sleep to determine your optimal get-up-and-get-out-of-bed moment.

During the final few hours of sleep, your sleep is more fragmented with short periods of wakefulness or "arousals"--the optimal moments for you to wake up. HappyWakeUp detects those moments by monitoring the quality of your sleep, based on noises that the microphone of your mobile phone picks up. During the final 20 minutes before the ultimate alarm time, a "soft" alarm will ring, depending on your snoring patterns and/or your movements. If you're sleeping calmly, the soft alarm doesn't ring.

"The alarm signal during deep sleep is stressful and familiar to everyone, but with the smart alarm clock this is avoided," says Salmi, who is researcher at University of Helsinki in Finland.

Interestingly, the Finnish researchers say that the same recording and analysis techniques can also be used to monitor sleep problems such as restless legs syndrome, snoring, and sleep apnea. For the time being, HappyWakeUp is only available for Nokia S60 smart phones.

As for what you'd name a product like this, well, I'll have some suggestions after a good night's sleep.

-- Jonathan Erickson
jerickson@ddj.com

Posted by Jon Erickson at 05:03 PM  Permalink