REMzen Claims They Can Help You Sleep Better (Video)

Meet Jeremiah Scott, Co-Founder & CEO of Portland, OR, based Remzen. Their first product -- crowdfunded, of course -- is supposed to ship this October. It's an "intelligent sleep mask that collect sleep lab-type data but it also wakes you with light rather than sound, which Jeremiah says is more natural and better for you. Remzen started as a student project at Portland State University, but it is obviously moving toward the big time. Open Source? You'd think so, since Timothy met Jeremiah at OSCON. But there's apparently a financial backer or two who still need to be convinced that this project should be 100% open source instead of only halfway there.

Note: The transcript contains more material than the video. Even if you prefer video to text, you may want to read it.

Comments

Gotta stop using meth first

[Anonymous Coward]

Then we can work on sleep.

They can help you sleep better

[XxtraLarGe]

But first, you have to get used to sleeping with a mask on. Something I never found helpful for sleeping. :-/

Re:They can help you sleep better

[Anonymous Coward]

Just image your cat sleeping on your face.

Re:They can help you sleep better

[irrational_design]

This. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and I have one of those breathing machines. But I never use it. I've tried nearly a dozen different masks but I couldn't ever get used to sleeping with any of them. Even if I could eventually fall asleep I would always pull it off my face in my sleep which would then wake me up since it would start making a loud sound.

Re:They can help you sleep better

[Anonymous Coward]

Try a Mandibular Advancing Device; such as the TAP 3.

Halfway Open Source

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

That's like halfway pregnant, isn't it?

Light is more natural than sound?

[fustakrakich]

That's not what my caveman ancestors told me.

Re:Light is more natural than sound?

[tlhIngan]

That's not what my caveman ancestors told me.

There's been many years between cavemen and now, and in that time, we got up at sunrise, and went to bed at sunset. Only in the past 200 years or so did we have sufficient artificial light that we no longer were tied to the sun.

Either way, we tend to respond to light.

Re:Light is more natural than sound?

[StikyPad]

And sound. It's not an either/or proposition -- when it gets light out, the world gets noisier, from both human and animal activity. Gradually brightening light with gradually louder sound would be the most realistic scenario.

Jeremiah or Jeremia?

[Anonymous Coward]

Jeremiah or Jeremia? Because if I was Jeremia(h) I'd be upset that they got my name wrong.... oh wait, that is my name.

- Jeremiah

SubjectsSuck

[aardvarkjoe]

But I started with an LED light just a Happy Light in the morning. I found that if I was able to drag myself out of bed, make it to my computer desk, and flip on that light, within ten to fifteen seconds itâ(TM)d be better than a cup of coffee. And now I have the ability to get that very same effect without even leaving my bed.

You know, you could have just bought a $10 timer and used it to turn on the light too...

Re:SubjectsSuck

[Anonymous Coward]

That's true. What attracts me to their product is the ability to ensure my partner isn't exposed to the light as it would if I used a bedside lamp. Not only do we get up at different times, I'm the only one who has trouble sleeping. Having your light therapy wake up timed through body movement tracking (actigraphy) is also a big benefit.

news for views, revenue that matters

[nimbius]

and, well, hey our name was written on the check so who are we to judge!

is this another cloud based product?

[Anonymous Coward]

My guess is they'll lock the data to a cloud just like fitbit and other health sensors. They may open source the API that accesses data from their servers but talk about privacy or the importance of users being able to access information anywhere as reasons why they can't let you run your own server or not give them your logging data.

If other people are getting the information then it won't matter if the thing gives me head until I'm asleep, I'm not buying it.

Something like zeo?

[Anonymous Coward]

It was a sleep monitor (mini EEG) intended to help monitor sleep and wake you up at optimal time. Company went under.

More details ... http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicetruong/2012/02/24/battle-of-the-zzzs-how-zeos-sleep-monitors-stack-up/

Offtopic; On android i need to download a player

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously?! I need to download a player to see the vid? What is this 2010? There is this "new" thing often reported on /. Called html5.

Crowdfunded?

[BVis]

Isn't the point of crowdfunding avoiding the usual corporate big-money bullshit associated with traditional investors? The problem where people think that since they have a lot of money, they're experts at everything? And anything they don't understand (like F/OSS) can't be important or useful?

Re:Offtopic; On android i need to download a playe

[hucker75]

Works fine for me.

Pro-Vent nose valve stickers as CPAP alternative

[billstewart]

I haven't tried them - the nose-pillow types of CPAP mask work really well for me, though I suppose I should try picking up a pack of them for travel. They're basically a bandaid with valves that you stick on your nose at night, and while they're not going to take an average sleep-apnea patient from 40 down to 5 AHI, they might take you down to 10.

Also, if your CPAP is making loud noises when you take it off, see if your DME can adjust its settings for you. One of the standard brands of machines does about 10 seconds of air after you take it off to clean out the hoses, but maybe that's adjustable, depending on whether you're using a fixed or variable pressure setting. (I usually turn the machine off before taking off the mask, so the noise doesn't wake up my wife.)

Zeo uses EEG; this looks like it watches eyes move

[billstewart]

Zeo used EEG to detect your brain activity related to sleep, and sound to wake you up. Any idea where to get new sensor pads? Mine have long worn out, so I'm just using the control box as a conventional alarm clock these days.

There have been several REM-detecting masks in the past that watch for eye movement or maybe electrical signals from the muscles near your eyes; my wife has one that one of the Stanford researchers made a decade or so ago (with 9-pin RS232 for download/settings :-) I didn't watch the video, but the text looks like that's what this device is doing.

Also, this uses light to wake you up. Sorry, I want noise as a backup. I did have an officemate once who was deaf, and used lights on a timer as his alarm clock, which occasionally gave him trouble when he was travelling, because of polarized-vs-nonpolarized plug differences between his timer and hotel electric sockets.

Re:Trouble wearing masks at night

[billstewart]

I've tried wearing opaque masks to keep light from waking me up in the morning. Maybe a heavy-duty one like this would stay on better; the light-weight travel mask I've used tends to slip off (especially because it doesn't quite fit over my CPAP mask's straps), though it's some help.

And my cat doesn't sleep on my face; he prefers being on the pillow at the top of my head, or taking up the middle half of the bed.