Zeo Sleep Monitor

Found a problem exposed by Janes data so have done an update and updated the links. If you don’t have the issue you never will, if you do, the new update will fix it.

Hi, had another quick look at my data and I think the drop outs are because my sensor is on it’s way out :frowning: It’s only lasted 3 months, so I guess I’d better sign up for the replacement headband idea rather sooner than I’d hoped!!

Jane

I did notice that your data had more dropouts in it than I had seen in other data. Its not too loose and slipping of your head is it? The sensors in my wifes zeo are very old, i.e., years and still working ok.

There is actually a set of results in the data for the status of the headband, but unfortunately I don’t really know how to interpret it.

the sensor has slipped where there are big gaps, as I remember having to move it when I woke up for the most recent one, but I don’t think it has for the short drop-outs. Maybe I’ll try tightening the band first, before I give up on it - I managed to get a pack of three earlier in the year, so don’t want to waste one unnecessarily!

Jane, I get easily 6 months of every night usage from a sensor set. You might try checking the snaps that connect the transmitter to the headband. If one is not set properly, it will result in quite erratic readings.
Jay

I’ll certainly check and try just tightening the band a little, but do we know what actually causes the sensor to ‘wear out’? What is the wear-out mechanism? I’m guessing its a deterioration of the material that is in contact with the skin? Due to sweat/grease? Clearly I can’t change the outside temperature, and being female, and of a certain age, can’t necessarily do much about night sweats, but maybe I could cleanse/tone my forehead before going to bed??? Or is there any way of cleaning the material? I know the Zeo assumption was replacement, but given that’s increasingly difficult, is there an option/approach for cleaning it??
Jane

Jane, I posted my response to your last questions over in the other thread.

I’ve made several very detailed posts about the alternative of using standard disposable ECG electrodes; look for my posts 322, 284, 161. I’m not posting any more there because nobody appears to be interested.

In summary, disposable electrodes work 100% perfectly. They are expensive if used once only, as designed, but it is very easy to get much more use out of them. I routinely get over 10 days per set. I made one test pulling out all the stops (except that I only renewed the gel once, I might have got more use, but the electrodes were getting scruffy anyway), and got 20 days out of one set. If properly stored (see my posts) I have had no problems with shelf life of opened or unopened bags of electrodes. At the moment I am using the electrodes at a rate of about 2 bags of 50 a year, at a discount price of £5 per short-dated bag, cheaper than headbands when Zeo supplied them. I have 7 bags left, and expect transmitter battery problems before running out (I haven’t yet found any information on battery replacement).

There has been a bit more on this topic on the thread cited above since I wrote the above; I think any further response or discussion belongs there, not here. Feel free to cite this text there if desired.

Woodinblack, thank you for your software. It’s great. I can use my Zeo again.


Please see this: DIY Replacement Zeo Sleep Monitor Headband Sensor http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Replacement-Zeo-Sleep-Monitor-Headband-Sensor/

You can make you own replacement headband sensors.

Thanks, that makes it worth writing!

This viewer works great! If you have a Bedside Zeo Model and haven’t yet tried it, you should!

Thanks Woody.

Jay

I have done an update from 0.2.1, the first public release to 0.2.3.
This version adds a new section in the percentage view that shows Time To Z. For a lot of people time to Z is fairly short (mine is no time at all), but for some of us this can go on a while and creates a confusing set of stats, as if your time to z is in hours, the zeo will say you only had a short time in sleep, but the viewer will show the hours that you were awake.
This is switchable like the other columns in percentage view so that you can get an overview of the columns you are interested in.

Both the mac and PC versions are updated and available on my site at http://www.alienrat.net/software/zeomonitor.html but if you have the windows version you can also download just the exe and place it over the original exe. This is just a convenience to save you from a large download. If you are not familiar with doing this, downloading the installer will work fine.

Let me know if you find anything wrong, or for any requests etc.

While I haven’t yet used this (since it was first released I haven’t yet looked over history, just checked the last night on the display), I’ll just add my voice to say that it seems to be very useful, and I expect to use it, thanks. It would have been particularly useful in the past until I updated firmware as it understands encrypted data.

The time-to-sleep is particularly misleading with electrodes, as you don’t want to take them off and put them on as readily as a headband, e.g., go into the bathroom, wash and rub forehead to remove loose skin flakes (also good with headband?), and then maybe read or whatever for a while.

Best wishes

Thanks Woody. Working fine here. My suggestions are:

  • re-enable printing for the widows version :slight_smile:
  • option to export in a file format that I can put on my iPad, to show the doctor - maybe just a jpeg?
  • ideally, (but obviously over-optimistically), a query language to interrogte the database - but probably more realistically, some additional views. For instance, I’m interested in what influence the day of the week has on my sleep, so I’d like to be able to show only Mondays - noting that some weeks there may not be data for a Monday. I do a lot of erratic travelling, so I’d also be interested to add a marker to a long travelling day and see if the recovery and impact on my sleep is the same after each trip

Hope that’s useful!

Jane

Feedback is always useful.

1: Printing is working, I checked. You have to have a view selected before it prints though, so go to one of the views and the print box will highlight. I just tried it, it is working fine.
2: Good point, The originals did have the file image copy and paste, but it got dropped along the way, I will reimpliment it.
3: The query language would be a bit complicated, as I would need to know exactly what you want to see and put that functionality in, unless you wanted raw data, which you could get from the export, in which case I could just put it in.
You can get the view you want at the moment, if you want. If you expand everything and control click on all the days that are monday, you will get a view of just those days. Not ideal I know, but it would show you what you want.
Markers on the other hand is something that Me and Jay have been talking about, and are currently underway - a way of importing arbitrary data and displaying it at the same time - both as discrete events and continuous related events.
That and notes are the things that I want to put in from now, and some of it will definitely start to appear in the next versions.

I suppose it may be worth having markers on the side, or maybe some kind of filtering of days so you can see them?

With regard to individual day selection, control click and shift click seem to provide quite a bit of versatility in including or excluding specific days or blocks of days, though I’m still working on mastering the technique :slight_smile:

The time to Z that I am showing on the display is the time to Z shown by the zeo to keep the data sorted. Both Jay and I have spent some time trying to make a rule of how the zeo knows where time to Z is, and neither of us have managed it yet - whatever rule you make, you will find some data that contradicts it, so it is hard to tell if it is something in the data or something else the zeo had in the continuous data that it didn’t save.

Thanks for doing this, looks great. However, each time I open the DAT file the software crashes after saying the import was successful. I’m on OS 10.9.4. Any ideas?

Thanks.

Quick update - Just tested the Windows version on my Mac by running it on VMWare Fusion with XP. Opens fine without crashing. Just the Mac version I have the problem with.

Sorry to hear that!

When you reopen the Zeo viewer does it have all the records you imported or not? Does it crash after you ok the dialog, or just as it occurs?

10.9.4 is what I am using here.

Good news, it now appears to be working! Odd as I haven’t logged out or rebooted the Mac. When it wasn’t working the records weren’t there when I reopened Zeo Viewer and it was crashing just after I clicked on OK. Seems fine now. I’ll let you know if it returns :smiley: