Insomnia? There’s an app for that
September 9, 2011
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Lesley Ciarula Taylor
STAFF REPORTER
A simple web page may hold the clue to solving all of your sleeping problems.
Beset with insomnia and puzzled by morning grogginess after a long night’s sleep, information technologist David Shaw learned the secrets of sleep cycles.
And when he figured it out, he created sleepyti.me.com, an online sleep calculator that can tell you when to go to bed so you get a good night’s sleep.
For example, three hours — two complete 90-minute sleep cycles — are better than six hours and 45 minutes, Shaw told the Star on Friday.
“If you wake up between sleep cycles, it’s a lot more difficult to get out of bed,” he said. “I was astounded by the improvement in my day-to-day life.”
He did the math by hand for a while, then designed a web page calculator, refined with online help. Now he has more than 55,900 people liking it on Facebook.
The Sleepyti.me Calculator math is based on the average falling-asleep time of 14 minutes after you close your eyes. If yours is different, add or subtract accordingly.
If you’ve been lying there for 45 minutes tossing and turning, get up, walk around, clear your head and stay up until the calculator says it’s time for bed, the 22-year-old Californian said.
“This has opened my eyes to the fact that sometimes simple and elegant solutions can work really, really well.”
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