Zeo Sleep Monitor

zeo sleep monitor

The Zeo makes this data available for people who may have sleep problems–and quite a lot do, judging from a  2005 National Sleep Foundation (NSF) poll (a recent poll covering a wide range of adults):

26% say they had “a good night’s sleep” only a few nights a month or less. Another 24% report having “a good night’s sleep” a few nights a week.

This blog is meant to be a technical discussion, not a consumer guide, so I took the opportunity to talk to Ben Rubin, CTO and cofounder of Zeo, just a couple weeks after the official release of the Zeo to get some information on two aspects:

• How it collects data during sleep


• How they analyze the data to help the customer sleep better

The Zeo sensor device is a simple headband with a silver layer that lies on your forehead. The designers chose silver because it doesn’t cause allergic reactions and efficiently picks up electronic waves with minimal noise from sweat or other interference.

The electrical signals given off by the brain, the eyes, and muscle movements around the face are collected 128 times per second. Activity at different frequencies indicates what kind of sleep you’re in (if any), in ways well known to sleep researchers. For instance:

• Activity in the 11 to 14 Hz range indicate some form of sleep. Spikes in that range–sleep spindles–indicate light sleep.


• Activity in  the 2-4 Hz range (Delta waves) indicate deep sleep.


• REM sleep has less in the Delta range and more in higher frequencies, along with the heightened eye movements that give the sleep phase its name, and fewer muscle contractions, which can be measured by activity in the 30 Hz range.

And so forth. The headband knows the essential frequencies of electronic activity in the brain, in the eyes (because they’re electronically polarized) and in the facial muscles. This is quite impressive when you look at traditional sleep labs. They put sensors on many different parts of the face to get their data. In contrast, the Zeo picks up a signal that it has to separate into frequency bands. Of course, the lab is more accurate, but its cost makes it feasible only for diagnosed sleep disorders. (The Zeo company wants to make it clear that they aren’t providing a medical device and don’t offer diagnoses.)

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