I like the way these guys think

It's called the Zeo, and it is like a personal sleep coach invented by three college seniors who were sleep deprived (most likely from partying too much) and instead of taking the simple way out, and cutting something out of their schedule to sleep more, they invented a nifty gadget.

The Zeo is a headband that tracks your cycles through the four stages of sleep, two of light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep. These fellas learned in a psychology class that a NASA study concluded that pilots woken out of a light sleep were much more functional that those woken out of a deep sleep. AHA! They figured. They could out smart sleep. If only they could wake up while in light sleep stages, they could sleep less overall but still feel refreshed.

Thus, there would be time for partying until 4am, and still make it to class able to take notes at 8. It's really quite the innovation, and captures the spirit of the college student. No, I won't give up something I enjoy, I'll just get better at doing everything else more efficiently to fit it all in.

The Zeo has the capability to rouse you from the light sleep stages rather than breaking into the middle of your REM dreams like your alarm has a tendency to do. When you wake up during this phase of the sleep cycle, you may feel better overall than if you interrupt deep sleep.

Doctors say that no one is capable of being fully rested on 5 hours of sleep, and that those who claim they can be are delusional. FINALLY someone is backing me up on this. They also confirm that the only way to really treat your body right is to give it the sleep it craves.

Yet, at a time in my life when there just is too much to do, and too little time, the thing I find myself cutting out is precious sleep. I wander around sucking up Dunkin Doughnuts turbo iced coffees, and being grumpy at work. I know the answer would be easily to sleep more, but let's be serious, that probably won't happen. And I am not alone! This month's issue of Vogue had two articles on sleep and staying awake, one devoted to the zeo and sleeping better, another totally devoted to coffee and the various type and varieties. We apparently live in a society where no one can fit in as much sleep as they want, which makes the awakeness industry one of the top in the world with coffee traded as the second world wide commodity after oil.

If I had a Zeo I could maximize the power of the sleep I do get. Maybe it would finally give me the time to fit in the gym before work AND happy hour after work. A girl can dream right?