Zeo Sleep Manager Mobile review

The Zeo can also serve as a demonstrable eye-opener when it comes to illustrating the way in which coffee and alcohol can affect sleep. If you upload your data to the web interface you can access quick questionnaires about how you feel when you wake up and what you consumed before bed in order to help illustrate why drinking a bottle of Shiraz isn’t really conducive to a good night’s rest.

The iPad and Android apps can both monitor your sleep history and save it to your web-based Zeo account

The alarm feature is also very useful if you need to get up at an unusual hour. It attempts to wake you when your sleep is at its lightest, making it less likely that you’ll feel groggy or simply turn over and go back to sleep. If you have anything approaching a natural circadian rhythm, you’ll usually tend towards light sleep at the time you normally wake, but if you’re a shift worker, naturally nocturnal or have an unusual sleep/wake cycle, then the Zeo can be a big help when it comes to re-acclimatising yourself to a normal sleep cycle. You can also choose to use any music on your device to wake you up.

Before starting the monitor at night, you have to put on the headband, plug in your phone or tablet and – optionally – configure your alarm settings

We’ve spoken to top-level sportspeople who swear by the Zeo to get them up for early morning race meetings, but most people don’t really need special monitoring hardware to tell us we had a poor night’s sleep. However, if you enjoy analysing data about your life, want something to help keep you motivated while trying to cut down on coffee or alcohol, work irregular hours or are just interested in your sleep habits, the Zeo is a unique, if rather expensive and occasionally unstable, way to do it.