Never Wake Up Groggy Again!

How much more would you get done in your day if you didn't feel sluggish and out of sorts when the alarm went off?

Optimizing your wake time seems to be the new fad lately. I just read a piece by David Pogue in the New York Times in which he reviews the Sleeptracker Pro Elite sleep monitor, a $180 gizmo intended to help you avoid sleep inertia -- that groggy feeling you get when you first wake up.

Instead of going off at a certain set time (say, 7 a.m.), the watch tracks your movements through the night and when your "wake window" approaches, chooses to rouse you when it senses activity. The idea is that your movement indicates you're having a natural nearly-awake moment already, so this is an optimal time to bring you to full consciousness.

Does it work? Pogue says in the two weeks he wore the watch, he never woke up groggy -- but then again, he admits it's hard to say whether he would have felt fine on those days anyway. Amazon.com reviewers give the Sleeptracker Pro, an earlier model, an average of three stars; some say it's great, while a nearly equal number disagree.

But sleep tracking in general is definitely a trend. Pogue mentions another couple of gadgets, the Zeo and the Axbo, that are also intended to help people wake up refreshed. Who knows? Might be worth trying.

Then again, climbing into the sack a few minutes earlier might work just as well -- and it's a much cheaper solution.