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Hypnometer

Did you get your 8 hours?
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It is essential to get at least 8 hours of sleep every day. Being slightly obsessive-compulsive, however, I can't trust my feelings about whether or not did I get enough sleep - I'd really like to know exactly how much time did I sleep (and where that time is located on the numeric axis relative to the 8 hours mark). Plus I don't always fall asleep immediately, making it hard to estimate the sleep time by subtracting the go-to-bed time from the wake-up time.

So I think it is essential to have a wearable skullcap-like device - the hypnometer - that would monitor my brain activity (EEG), possibly paired with something that looks like those eye-shades things rich women wear in old movies, but not just for darkening, but for monitoring rapid-eye movement (REM).

Using the information from EEG/REM sensors, the hypnometer would calculate the sleep time, beaming it via bluetooth to the ceiling projector that would display the sleep time so far in huge characters (thus readable even without my glasses on).

Finally I'll be able to get out of the bed safely, knowing that I'm not terminating my date with Morpheus prematurely.

xipetotec, Apr 21 2008

Less is more http://www.newscien...eep-the-safest.html
Of course it could be bollocks. [MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 21 2008]

Did you get enough sleep? http://www.bbc.co.u...anbody/sleep/sheep/
This tests your reaction time. [Klaatu, Apr 21 2008]

Rotisserie_20bed [hippo, Apr 22 2008]


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Annotation:







       Sounds like a machine to cause severe emotional or mental distress for the sleepless.
CwP, Apr 21 2008
  

       You will actually live longer on less than 8 hours sleep per night.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 21 2008
  

       But [xipetotec] is getting sleep by day, so (s)he'll be all right.
pertinax, Apr 21 2008
  

       But it's always night somewhere.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 21 2008
  

       Actually, [MaxwellBuchanan], I'm surprised that unambiguous data exists on that subject; my understanding is that the optimum amount of sleep varies between individuals, and even if you graphed hours-per-night against years lived, you'd have trouble eliminating confounding factors. But I don't know. Have you a link?
pertinax, Apr 21 2008
  

       Happy to oblige.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 21 2008
  

       (from MaxwellBuchanan's article)   

       But Orfeu Buxton at the University of Chicago sleep research centre says: "They have used subjective measures for sleep that are a poor surrogate for actual sleep measures."   

       Aha! So they too could use a hypnometer!
xipetotec, Apr 21 2008
  

       //It is essential to get at least 8 hours of sleep every day.//   

       Damn, except on weekend sleep-in days, I can't remember the last time I got 8 hours sleep on a work day. I'm lucky to get 6. Jeez, I often don't get 4.   

       From what I've read, it's all about completing REM cycles, or something like that. So someone like me that wakes up every 30 minutes or so just to roll over or find some cold bedding, your machine needs to be a bit more complex.
Custardguts, Apr 22 2008
  

       [CustardGuts] - sounds like you need the "Rotisserie bed" (linked).
hippo, Apr 22 2008
  

       [CustardGuts] > So someone like me that wakes up every 30 minutes or so just to roll over or find some cold bedding...   

       This is precisely what this device is for - to discount the time when you're not actually sleeping from the total sleep time.
xipetotec, Apr 22 2008
  


 

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