[greattypo]

I'm still intrigued by the WakeMade concept. The last HN thread I remember had all sorts of good unanswered questions.. one I remember being: do these bands help you feel more refreshed all day or is it just an initial thing?

Has anyone found more information about how well these work?

[kemiller]

I'm fairly disappointed. When it works, the data is really interesting. I'm on my second unit, and they've both been really really flaky, mostly battery issues as far as I can tell. Annoying to use (constantly have to find a little tiny switch and turn it of and back on again).

I guess for a $49 sleep monitor what do I expect? My sense, having had a taste for what it could do, is that I'd rather pay a bit more if it meant more reliability. It's frustrating when your data collection is thrown off by a lost night, or when the alarm doesn't go off at the right time because it lost its connection.

[dmix]

Just having the data alone for me is worth $60. How you make it actionable is still largely up to you. If you're having negative sleep patterns, Wakemate will likely help you identify when they are happening or possibly the cause (ie tracking workouts). But Wakemate won't make you go to bed earlier, thats up to the user.

So it might be difficult to find empirical data on whether it improves your daily energy.

I've had a similar issue with my own product that tracks health data.

[schrototo]

I've had a sleep cycle alarm clock for a couple of years now (they've been available long before this WakeMate thing, and mine also collects sleep data, altough I guess the WakeMate interface is much nicer) and although it kinda works, don't expect to wake up refreshed if you're shortchanging yourself on sleep. If you're only getting 5 hours of sleep a night you're going to wake up tired no matter what.

Since most of the time I don't really have to get up at a specific time, I usually let myself be woken up by the sunlight, which is the most consistently effective way of waking up refreshed that I've found.

[bennesvig]

I'm a huge fan of it. Even though my wife probably throws off my true sleep score, I still love having the data and seeing what affects my sleep.