Why it’s Breakthrough: It’s a do-it-yourself sleep coach made up of a four-part system that could not only change the way you sleep, but could change everything while you’re awake.

The Story: The evidence is overwhelming. Consistent quality sleep is as essential to achieving optimal health as good nutrition and daily fitness. The National Institute of Health suggests healthy adults need seven to nine hours of sleep each night in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Yet more than one third of Americans report they regularly sleep 6.5 hours or less. While there are a variety of resources on the market today to educate and train health-conscious consumers on nutrition and fitness, there is an absence of guidance for the sleep-concerned. That is, until now.

Introducing the Zeo™ Personal Sleep Coach, the world’s first science-based sleep educational tool and coaching program, developed in collaboration with some of the leading sleep scientists in the country. Zeo is designed to help consumers understand how they sleep, reveal habits and behaviors that directly affect their slumber and teach new ways to achieve a better night’s rest.

“There are personal coaches for so many important aspects of our lives – from fitness and nutrition to life and careers,” said David Dickinson, president and CEO of Zeo Inc. “The one glaring area without the aid of a coach is sleep. Yet sleep is a fundamental piece of achieving overall health and wellness.”

Zeo is a four-part system that consists of the lightweight Zeo Headband, the Zeo Bedside Display, an interactive Web site at www.myZeo.com and the 7 Step Sleep Fitness™ Program. This innovative technology links personalized sleep data with lifestyle habits to create the most comprehensive in-home sleep coaching program on the market today.

“The launch of Zeo is truly exciting for the sleep science community because it unlocks the black box of sleep for the average consumer while having the potential to open many doors for sleep science,” said Kenneth Wright, Jr. Ph.D., associate professor of integrative physiology and chair of Zeo’s Scientific Advisory Board. “Zeo works to inspire people to learn more about their personal sleep patterns and take proactive steps to get a better night of sleep.”

Zeo’s soft and lightweight headband uses patent-pending SoftWave™ sensor technology to accurately track individual sleep patterns. Throughout the night in real time, the headband sends personal sleep information wirelessly to the Zeo Bedside Display, which resembles a high-tech alarm clock.

In the morning, users view a sleep graph showing their personal sleep data, including total time slept, the amount of time it took to fall asleep, the time awake in the middle of the night and the total amount of REM, Light and Deep sleep. All of these elements are used to create a personal sleep score called a ZQ, which ranges from 0-120 or more.

“Inventing a technology to measure a person’s sleep patterns in a simple, user-friendly and comfortable manner required five-years of innovation, consumer testing and product development,” said Jason Donahue, Zeo Inc.’s co-founder and vice president of Zeo Brand Management. Donahue, along with Ben Rubin, chief technology officer and Eric Shashoua, vice president of business development, founded Zeo Inc. together at Brown University in 2003. “From that innovation process, we actually developed two unique offerings to help consumers get a better night of sleep – accurate information about your sleep and personal sleep coaching.”

The www.myZeo.com Web site enables consumers to combine their sleep data with their lifestyle details and habits in order to see trends in their sleep. The interactive tools in myZeo.com also illustrate the effects of various potential disruptors – such as caffeine, light in the bedroom, and stress – on sleep. The myZeo Web site also hosts the 7 Step Sleep Fitness™ Program, a comprehensive sleep coaching program, tailored to the consumers’ goals, sleep data and lifestyle. Zeo users in the program receive personalized action plans by email with goal-oriented assignments to gently guide users to adjust their lifestyles and help them to achieve a better night’s sleep.

To help develop the first personal sleep coach, Zeo Inc. created a world-class Scientific Advisory Board comprised of leading sleep scientists from across the country. The Zeo Personal Sleep Coach is the culmination of breakthrough engineering innovation, cutting-edge sleep science knowledge and techniques, combined with a variety of disciplines, including technology, sleep education, neuroscience, behavioral psychology, consumer electronics and Web software technology.

The Zeo Personal Sleep Coach is now available at www.myZeo.com for $399 (includes six months of personalized online coaching). Consumers can purchase additional six-month installments of sleep coaching for $99.