I recently purchased one and have been using it for a couple of weeks. I haven’t found any sources on the WEB for other users to share experiences with the device.
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Hi,
Quite curious about this device. Love to hear more about your experience!
I have a Hello Sense sleep monitor (https://hello.is) and have experimented with other monitors (Garmin, iPhone and Apple Watch based).
My problem with these devices is that while they tell me (approximately) how much sleep I am getting and my sleep “quality”, they don’t provide much in the way of useful interventions to improve my sleep.
Sleep and recovery from exercise is one of the items at the top of my list.
Best,
George
As background, I have been, since February 2011, an avid Zeo user. When the company tanked I bought as many headbands as I could find and continued using the app on an old iPhone. So, I’m very used to wearing something on my head at night and very familiar with the information it provides.
It’s taken me nearly a month to get used to wearing the SSB. It’s not that it’s uncomfortable, just very different. The binaural beats also, for me, took some getting used to. Generally, I don’t think my sleep suffered too much during the acclimation. My sleep numbers on the Zeo prior to making the change were not that great, though they had been at one time.
On the other hand, I can’t say my sleep has radically improved either judged from a subjective perspective. I don’t know what sort of “algorithm” they just for the SSB and I’m sure it’s probably very different from that used by the Zeo app, so I doubt the scores can really be compared. The jury is still out whether the binaural beats really help to lull me to sleep or get me back to sleep if I wake up. I have had occasions where I notice the beats fading out or coming on in reaponse, I assume to the feedback from the headband. So, that part works at least in that the tone comes and goes based on some criteria.
It’s pretty expensive. The MSRP is $250 although I didn’t pay that much for mine since I bought into the startup. So, right now, I would say I can’t enthusiastically endorse it, but I wouldn’t pan it either. I’m hoping they will make the app more sophisticated and provide more information on how the unit measures and calculates sleep quality. I’m expecting I will get more used to the unit and start sleeping without being aware of it. I believe the latter accounts for the acclimation period.
I’ll continue to post my experience. At this point it’s the only option out there to use brainwaves to measure sleep quality. That is what I really like about the Zeo and why I bought the SSB. Nothing else out there compares I believe.
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Hi
Thanks for the detailed information. Love to hear more about your experiences. Too bad the Zeo is gone.
Best
George
I’ve emailed support several times and they have been very responsive and informative. I’ll certainly give them that.
I just bought one several days ago, and It does not seem to work, after 15min. The tones stop they start again when I move around. Not to sure about this.
I received mine a couple weeks ago and the unit had a faulty sound chip. They sent a replacement 2nd day air, but the second one had a similar problem. (I purchased two originally, and loaned one out. The loaner has performed well).
Sleep Shepherd sent a replacement for the replacement which should arrive Monday.
If this thread is still alive, I’ll add my two cents.
What problems was indicating a bad sound chip?
A Sleep Shepherd customer service rep made the faulty chip diagnosis with the description: Clicking, repeated beeps (instead of relaxing binaural beats), noises that woke me, etc. I’ll update after using the replacement for a few nights.
I’ve been using SSB for a few weeks. Overall I liked it. There is definitely an adaptation period to get used to the sounds, app and not disconnecting at night. Expect the first few nights to be crappy. I did a writeup for Adafruit if anyone is interested.
#Mikey_Sklar
Thanks for the writeup, very interesting and unfortunately showing the limitations I feared.
Namely I would love to use SSB for the EEG data but if I understand well you can’t access those. How useful is the sleep phases graph? Can you follow it to the min (for example a deep sleep phase started at 22:35)?
I also heard that it is possible to use SSB without the brain stimulation but lowering the headset volume to 0. Have you played around with that?
Apparently this has to do with the way their algorithm attempts to identify REM sleep which is very similar to waking. If you have waking/REM like brainwaves but are stationary, not moving, the tone remains off. This is assuming you have been asleep and have woken so you are aware of the tone. If on the other hand you have waking/REM like brainwaves are are quiescent, then the tone remains off.
I’ve experienced this. I’ll wake and there is no tone, but as soon as I move, there is a tone. Conversely, if I have been sleeping, wake but lie there still while awake, the tone will eventually stop.
I’m wondering what your sleep numbers are like if you have been using the SSB. Mine are generally in the mid to upper sixties if I sleep between seven and eight hours. If I sleep longer, they move into the 70s and I’ve had a few nights where the number was in the mid eighties.
This contrasts with the Zeo which was most often in the 70’s or 80’s. With the Zeo, I had had some nights in the 90’s and even a few at 105 or more, but only seldom. I understand the algorithm is likely very different and there is really no way to compare the two.
I am using the SSB. I have mixed feelings about it.
I really like the sleep stage tracking information, but I’d rather see the more basic/detailed EEG data. If I can’t get that, I’d like to see more specific REM start/end times or duration. I tend to get scores in the upper 60’s on nights when my subjective sleep quality is poor (for whatever reason) and the score increases through the 70s as I modify different factors and get a longer duration of sleep. The higher score correlates to a higher subjective quality of sleep.
Regarding comfort, the earphones that line the headband can be somewhat uncomfortable and cause pain in my ears if the headband is snug. I like the headband to be snug so it doesn’t slip off/around in the night. That happened the first few nights and it kept me awake and made me aware of the imbalance between the tones because of the location of the earphones. I dislike the isochronic tones. I find the tone to be unpleasant and jarring when I wake slightly/move. I noticed that it responds to movement rather than my perceived sleep state and if I happen to move and am not really awake, I feel pulled into wakefulness by the sound. I couldn’t block out extraneous noise in my home, so I turned the tone volume up and really hated it. I stopped using the SSB for about a month because it felt like it interfered with my sleep.
I picked it up again recently and made some modifications. I turned the volume all the way to zero and added ear plugs (occasionally) and a sleep mask. This seems to be sufficient in reducing the disruption to my sleep caused by the tone and the light sneaking in through the doorway. My sleep scores have been similar to the first few weeks that I wore it, but I haven’t compared the finer details of the sleep structure yet.
I believe the SSB thinks you are sleeping.
I have bought the Sleep Shepherd Blue for it’s hoped for ability to let you sleep better, not for the information the app gives.
Well, it doesn’t work for me at all. Getting to sleep always has been easy for me. My problem is that I almost always wake up during the night and then am wide awake for one to three hours.
I think that the ideas behind the Sleepshepherd Blue are nonsense. In the movie ‘Science Behind the Sleep Shepherd’ on their website, about how it works, the maker mentions scientific research on binaural beats, which should have proven that they do work. The articles themselves all are scientifically flimsy - very small numbers of participants - they are each about totally different types of effects of binaural beats, and none is about sleeping! So, there is no scientific base at all for the claim that binaural beats can help to get or stay asleep.
And I am one prove that they don’t work.
Furthermore, the headband for me was no problem to wear in the beginning of the night, but gets very annoying after some time.
So, my advice: don’t buy them.
I started using it last night. But I really expected better EEG data. Am I missing something in the charts?
thanks
Alan
Hi,
thanks.
I read the resumé on PubMed, and also the original article. Looks very interesting. I took it to my physician, who didn’t know doxepin, but was willing to read the article. In the meantime he didn’t want to prescribe doxepin, so I ordered it on the web last week. Still waiting for the arrival. Will start with 3 mg dose. The 10 minutes extra - on average - doesn’t seem to justify the double dosis of 6 mg.
Thanks again for pointing me to that article. I will follow up after I have used it for two or three weeks.
Regards,
Martin Spanjaard
I would love it if someone would do a detailed teardown and post pictures.