Remember how I claimed that RealSleep didn’t work? Well, turns out there may have been some user error involved. Just after I published that post, I received an email from Dr. Seth Horowitz, Chief Neuroscientist at NeuroPop, the company that makes RealSleep. Here’s what he had to say:
“…On reading your entry, I think I know the problem. As we mention in the instuctions with the CD, the small attachable speakers for iPods have almost no bass response, and hence will not only severely limit the algorithms but will sound tinny and irritating to most people. See if you can try the CD out with headphones or running it through somethign with larger speakers.
The other issue is that when ripping the CD to play on your iPod, you have to save the files as WAV or AIFF files. Most people’s default makes mp3s or AAC files which compress all the algorithms to uselessness…”
The stupid thing is, I read those instructions! And then I promptly forgot and ignored them, so it’s totally my fault. Or could be. I wrote Dr. Seth back and asked if a small portable CD player (boombox-esque, not walkman-esque) would work, and he thinks it might. So that’s going to be my next try. I’ll keep you posted.
Dr. Seth was very kind and helpful, and even wrote a second email with some helpful hints I’ll try to optimize the RealSleep experience:
“A small to medium boombox should be fine. Just don’t turn on anything like noise reduction or bass enhance – just play it. We’ve found that it works best if you don’t have it aiming directly at one ear or the other and should only be loud enough so that it is just audible – you should be able to hear a very faint low frequency rumbling once in a while – it sort of sounds like a distant truck going by – that is the Sopite algorithm. It’s based on a trick of your balance system that makes you sleepy when exposed to rumbling vibrations and it’s why a lot of people fall asleep in a car or train (hopefully not while driving).”
Suddenly this sounds like an ad for RealSleep, but I assure you I’m not getting paid, and I haven’t even actually tried it properly, so I don’t know if it works. I just appreciated his followup, and I’m glad to know it’s not a lost cause yet.
Even if it doesn’t end up working, that is SOME customer service!!
I think that low noise really, really helps. I usually sleep like the dead (knock on wood), but Wm needs a fan or something to stay asleep, so we usually have a fan going at night. I’ve noticed I sleep even deeper with that dang fan on. Crazy. I call it comasleep.
I’m very interested to read how this works out for you because I’m also a poor sleeper.
However, little noises tend to irritate me (like the fan) – and I can’t sleep because the small clicking sound that nobody normal would hear sounds deafening to me sometimes.
Wow! Great customer service. Interested to hear how/if that works.