Zeo Mobile Review

Been using my Zeo Mobile for a while and figured I would post the results/thoughts I have about it.

First thing to note is this is a headband and if you use a mask that has a band across the forehead it may cause problems. I manage to get my Zeo on first, then my mask and I have had no problems and the two straps on my forehead do not bother me at all.

Second, you will more than likely drain your phone battery unless you have an extended battery, or just plug your cell in like I started doing. The headband charges on a night stand and I can go two nights or more in between charges (good for overnight stays) if needed.

You can view you data on the cell (mine is a Droid Bionic) when you wake up or later at work. It also syncs with their website for viewing later, with more tools and graphs than are available with the droid app. For instance on the web you can actually see how long you were awake with each awakening you have. On the droid app, you just see the rough time and overall amount of wake time.

If this unit is anywhere near even 50% accurate (which I know it is more) then i find the information very valuable. While my CPAP shows compliance and no issues, the Zeo shows nights where I wake up sometimes up to 12 times a night. I was out of town at relatives this weekend and used my Zeo and they asked me if the coyotes howling kept me awake, interesting when I looked at my data it showed I was awoken at least 12 times. I have always been a light sleeper, so I am sure the howling woke me up. Also, I am starting to put together time periods. It seems a church behind me has a bus that frequently pulls in.out around 1-2:00 am on certain days. Seems that is a common time for me to wake up as well. Time to get a camera and mic and start recording:)

I don't see where to post pictures or I would post some screenshots, but what is interesting is last night when I went to bed I was so tired I didn't want to go back downstairs to get my CPAP I had packed up from my travel, so I just hooked up the Zeo and went to sleep. Before my tossing and turning knocked the Zeo off, it showed almost no wakeups and I actually was not tired in the morning at all. I do know I was breathing from my mouth instead of my nose as I generally do with my CPAP, since I had a slight sinus congestion.


Overall well worth the money I think. Can provide some good background info. For me looks like my REM, light Sleep and Deep sleep are good averages, i just have to many awakenings.

Glad it's working for you. To post photos you have to upload them to a site like photobucket and copy the location to your post here.

Did the headband come charged? I'm supposed to get mine today and I'd like to use it tonight if possible.

davelikesbeer wrote:Did the headband come charged? I'm supposed to get mine today and I'd like to use it tonight if possible.

It was partially charged, it says to charge it 3 hours before using. I was home when mine came and was able to just leave it on charge until I was ready to go to sleep.

Lizistired wrote:Glad it's working for you. To post photos you have to upload them to a site like photobucket and copy the location to your post here.

That is what I was thinking. I will see if I can find a a site. I don't want to use my normal photo accounts until I have decided on how I will proceed with my insurance, ect..ect..

All the new users must have crashed the Zeo site this morning. I can't open the log on page.

Jay

Got my Zeo Mobile yesterday and used it last night. Here are my first impressions.

In the box is included the headband with electrodes, the bluetooth device that snaps onto the headband, a usb cable, a power cable, three different power connectors that snap onto the power cable's transformer (one for the US, and two different European styles). The US connector is the smallest of the three, however the transformer box is unnecessarily large to accommodate the others. This means, it *may* make it difficult to plug something else into the second wall outlet because of the size. I say "may" because I didn't actually try, but I do know my it was so wide that I couldn't use my free outlet in my power strip.

I'm not 100% sure what the USB cable is for. It could be for the headband dock. The dock has a mini-B USB socket the power cable plugs into. The extra USB cable (type A to mini-B) could be used to charge the headband with your computer. They could have saved a bit on packaging if they transformer had a USB type A socket, then they would only have had to include one cable.

The headband is a combination of elastic and Velcro. The instructions say to charge the headband for three hours, which I did. It took me a few times to get it adjusted so it was tight enough to stay put, but loose enough to be comfortable. I placed the headband on first, followed by my Swift LT. They didn't seem to interfere with each other at all.

I had previously downloaded the Zeo application from the Android Market. Pairing my phone to the headband was trivial. Once it is paired, it basically starts recording whenever the headband is out of its charging dock. Which brings me to the first fault. The application doesn't appear to have a trivial way to "stop recording". When in use, the app says to dock the headband in order to stop recording.

During the night, I woke up a few times and noticed the clock on the app was too bright (and white). The app does have a dim button which I had already pressed. With the lights on, it appears to be very dim, but at night it looks like a light house. I had to point my phone away from me. In the future, I'll probably just keep my phone display set to my clock which does dim more and uses green to display the time.

I finally woke up around 6am and couldn't get back to sleep. I docked my headband to stop recording (thanks timeforchange for pointing out that it can lose data if the phone gets too far away from the band while recording). At this point, I hadn't created a MyZeo account in order to upload the data to the web.

After I created my online account from my computer, the app doesn't make it obvious how to upload. It seems when you click on the "History" tab, a very brief "Connect" button appears then goes away. After clicking this and entering user/pw, it automatically synced to the web.

Looking at the data in the web, I'm sure the Zeo is far from 100% accurate, but probably still useful. The first thing that jumps out at me is that it didn't detect any of the arousals. According to their website, you have to be awake for two minutes for it to consider it an arousal and not "Light Sleep". Second, even though I woke up around 6 and continued to wear the headband until 6:20, it still recorded it as "Light Sleep" as opposed to "Awake".

The next thing I noticed about the data is that it said it took me 18 minutes to fall asleep. That was probably close to accurate. However, the data show that I went from Awake to REM with no intervening Light sleep. Not sure if this is normal or not.

One possible explanation of these anomalies is that their website shows 5 minute blocks of data, while the data is actually recorded in 30 second blocks. I could have gone from wake to light to rem in under 5 minutes. Also, in the morning, I could have "dosed" off a few times. Although, I really am not certain about that.

My ZQ score for last night was 91. My sleep breakdown was 0% Wake 0:00, 31% REM 2:28, 55% Light Sleep 4:21, 14% Deep Sleep 1:05. According to their website, for my sex and age, this is well into the high end of what to expect.

It's a cool device. I hope to do some experimentation with it to help me figure out what is going on while I sleep.

Just a few questions ...

Can you replace the battery in the headband yourself?

If you get the non mobile Zeo version can you still use the mobile app with it? (its just blue tooth data capture)

It seems to me that the mobile version has the benefit of automatically uploading your data to the web site?

What do you actually do with the data to improve your sleep?

-UB

Dave, if you want to see those 30 sec intervals, you can download from the site. See the "export data" on the main page.

I find the greatest value of Zeo is the ability to establish and track trends. Unfortunately, the design of the system doesn't allow for "instant" readings and, as you pointed out, the awake for 2 minutes rule misses some awake times. I wish it could track arousals, maybe when you build "the box" you can incorporate that feature as well.

I'm still having trouble signing on to Zeo. Am I the only one?

Jay

Uncle_Bob wrote:Just a few questions ...

Can you replace the battery in the headband yourself?

It is unclear at this time. But a good question.

Uncle_Bob wrote:If you get the non mobile Zeo version can you still use the mobile app with it? (its just blue tooth data capture)

Not really. I believe there is a mobile app for the Zeo, but basically it is just an interface to their web site. The Zeo Bedside and Zeo Mobile headbands are incompatible.

Uncle_Bob wrote:It seems to me that the mobile version has the benefit of automatically uploading your data to the web site?

Honestly, still a new user, so I don't know how "automatic" it is. But with the Bedside version, you have to transfer the data from the SD card to your computer so you can upload to their website. With the mobile version, it seems to be just a single click on their app.

Uncle_Bob wrote:What do you actually do with the data to improve your sleep?

Learn.

davelikesbeer wrote:

Uncle_Bob wrote:Just a few questions ...

Can you replace the battery in the headband yourself?

It is unclear at this time. But a good question.

Uncle_Bob wrote:If you get the non mobile Zeo version can you still use the mobile app with it? (its just blue tooth data capture)

Not really. I believe there is a mobile app for the Zeo, but basically it is just an interface to their web site. The Zeo Bedside and Zeo Mobile headbands are incompatible.

Uncle_Bob wrote:It seems to me that the mobile version has the benefit of automatically uploading your data to the web site?

Honestly, still a new user, so I don't know how "automatic" it is. But with the Bedside version, you have to transfer the data from the SD card to your computer so you can upload to their website. With the mobile version, it seems to be just a single click on their app.

Uncle_Bob wrote:What do you actually do with the data to improve your sleep?

Learn.

Thanks Dave. I don't suppose the battery is much of an issue as the complete replacement head bands are $20.

I wonder how the automatic alarm feature works? given that REM stages can be different and can go on for up to 90 minutes, does that mean you could potentially get woken up 90 mins earlier or later than your desired time?

Anyway i've just put an order in for a bedside unit from Amazon. There A-Z guarantee will pay return shipping if it doesn't work out for me.

If i had the mobile version for my iPhone i wold have to turn off all my other audio alerts on my phone apps if i wanted to use the alarm on the Zeo app, that would be a pain.

Thanks
UB

Jay Aitchsee wrote:I'm still having trouble signing on to Zeo. Am I the only one?

Jay

Must be you Jay. I just logged on to myzeo. This site is whacky though. Slow and error messages at the top.

Thanks Liz, I was able to sign on a few minutes ago. Say, I was going to mention your avatar. That looks like a drastic reduction in AI. How'd you do that?

Jay

Uncle_Bob wrote: ...

Thanks Dave. I don't suppose the battery is much of an issue as the complete replacement head bands are $20.

Actually, I bet that does not include the blue tooth component. The headband has the electrodes and three snap connectors that connect to the blue tooth component. I think the $20 is just for the headband so you can replace your worn electrodes.

Jay Aitchsee wrote:Thanks Liz, I was able to sign on a few minutes ago. Say, I was going to mention your avatar. That looks like a drastic reduction in AI. How'd you do that?

Jay

That's what happened when I turned the EPR off. I don't need no stinkin' comfort features!