Tracking how (poorly) you sleep

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Americans who have trouble sleeping and don’t want to spend the night in a sleep lab can find out just how exhausted they are with a new at-home sleep monitor.

The device, called the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach, is the latest addition to the $23-billion-a-year market for sleep aids. According to a review of the product this week in the MIT Technology Review, the device allows people to track their sleep cycles over time. It does not promise to improve sleep, and it won’t diagnose severe sleep disorders. The idea is to discover how just how much time you spend in various sleep cycles so you can work on improving your sleep.

Users wear a headband with sensors that measure electrical activity in the brain. In the morning, a display unit gives a summary of the night’s sleep, including how long the user slept, how many times he or she awakened and how much time was spent in the various stages of sleep. The Zeo costs $399.

-- Shari Roan