[chasingsparks]

I (and many other HN readers, I'm sure) have had this idea plenty of times. If you wake up in one of those bad regions, you really are so much less productive. I'm glad someone is building this. Once it looks like the kinks are out, I'm ordering one for sure.

[jrockway]

A similar product has already existed for years; the Zeo.

[clewiston]

not exactly similar. Our product uses Actigraphy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actigraphy), which is a different method (and in our opinion much less obtrusive) for measuring sleep phases than the Zeo which uses a headband. Also, our unit is wireless and automatically uploads your data to our web server with very little user input (besides setting the alarm before going to bed).

[jrockway]

Similar in the sense that it's a thing that makes a noise when it's time to get up, based on your sleep patterns.