OK, it’s a stretch to call this a collaboration but it’s so much fun I have to write about it. I’ve been playing around with a new phone app called “Sleep as an droid” (I thought this was a grammatical mistake until I got the play on words — android).
Smart phones have sensors that detect movement to figure out which way to orient the screen and to blank out the screen when you hold the phone up to your ear. Apparently when the phone is placed on a mattress, those same sensors can detect a sleeper’s movements. We move around less when we are in deep sleep and more in light sleep stages.
I can tell the app the time I want to wake up and give it some leeway (from 5 minutes to 2 hours) to wake me up earlier if it detects that I’m in a lighter sleep phase. The theory is that we wake up more easily and happily during light sleep. There’s also a selection of ring tones and I chose the one of birds singing.
Picture this: It’s 5:15 in the morning and I slowly wake up to the sound of birds singing. It’s gradually getting louder. How nice.
My cat is also having the same experience. But she wakes up a lot more quickly than I do. This is very exciting! Where are those birds. Under the covers? Let me at ’em!
By now I’m laughing so hard I’ve got tears in my eyes while I’m rescuing my phone. This happens every morning (it helps that we have multiple cats). Yesterday Shakleton even came running in from another room!
Imagine looking forward to the alarm going off each morning! I don’t know if my phone is truly detecting my light sleep stage but it sure is fun.
Collaboration Pays Off 