For Lisa Hanson, a stay-at-home mother in San Francisco, the alarm that used to rouse her out of sleep most mornings was the sound of her toddler.
对于丽萨.汉森这位生活中旧金山的全职妈妈来说，经常在早上把她从睡梦中叫醒的就是她一岁的儿子的发出的声音了。
"He wakes up at 5:30 screaming sometimes," she said. "It would jolt me awake, and then I'd be miserable and groggy all morning because I'd be woken up when I'm in my deepest sleep."
"他早上5：30就醒了，有时候还哇哇大叫，"她说，"他的尖叫把我震醒，然后整个早上我都感到痛苦眩晕，因为我都是在熟睡的时候被叫醒。"
But last month, Ms. Hanson started using a new program, the Renew Sleep Clock, an iPhone app that keeps track of her sleep. Its makers, GEAR4, say that the app uses radio sensors to detect breathing patterns and movements at night, then uses that information to wake a person at the lightest point of sleep, the optimal time to wake up. The theory is that awaking from light sleep, as opposed to the deep stages of sleep, helps reduce so-called sleep inertia, the cloud of grogginess and impaired alertness that makes people desperately want to crawl back into bed. The app also acts as a sort of sleep adviser, giving Ms. Hanson guidance about the amount of shut-eye to shoot for and ways to get there.
但是上个月，汉森女士开始使用一种新型软件，"睡眠更新钟"，一款iPhone 应用可以追踪用户的睡眠。这款应用的研发团队GEAR4说"睡眠更新钟"使用无线遥感器以监测使用者夜晚的呼吸模式和行动，接下来利用收集的信息在使用者睡得最轻的时候把使用者叫醒，也就是最理想的起床时间。这个理论，即在最轻度睡眠时把使用者叫醒，与深度睡眠相反，有助于降低所谓的睡后迟钝、由睡眠不足引起的身体衰弱和警惕度受损，而就是这些状况让人们迫不及待地想要爬回床上。此外，"睡眠更新钟"还起到了睡眠咨询师的作用，告知汉森女士需要多少眼睛开合的次数以及如何达到这一数字。
"Since I've been using it, I do feel better," Ms. Hanson said. "It's waking me up in a more ideal stage of sleep and helping me have that much better of a day."
"自从开始使用这项应用，我确实感觉好多了，"汉森女士说，"它让我在更为理想的状态下醒来，让我在接下来的一天来过得更好。"
The Renew Sleep Clock, which costs $199, is the latest addition to a new generation of smartphone apps designed to analyze and improve sleep patterns. While experts have warned for years that gadgets like smartphones are increasingly disrupting sleep by keeping us connected 24/7, these programs claim to do the opposite. Two other products that have gained followings are the WakeMate ($59.99), a wristband worn at night that wirelessly transmits data to the user's smartphone, and the Zeo Sleep Manager-Mobile ($99), which uses a sensor-equipped headband to collect data about the user's sleep habits.
价值199美元的"睡眠更新钟"是新一代智能手机应用的附加品，其设计目的就是分析及提高睡眠模式。然而专家们多年以来都在警告人们，像智能手机这样的小机器正在越来越多地扰乱人们的睡眠，因为它们使我们无时无刻都被连接，尽管这些软件声称的与此相反。另外两种具有相似功能的应用是"起床伙伴"（价值59.99美元）和"Zeo睡眠移动管理"（价值99美元），其中Zeo使用了装有感应器的头带用以收集使用者的睡眠习惯。
While all the apps vary, they generally work by having users pick a window of time in the morning - typically 20 to 40 minutes long - during which they would like to get up, then nudging the sleeper awake at the lightest point of sleep in that window. Sleepers get a score each morning that factors in the number of hours they slept while adding and subtracting points for things like disruptions and the percentage of time spent in the deep, restorative stages of sleep. The programs also let users keep track of daily habits like caffeine intake, exercise and meals, among other things, so they can see which habits might be affecting their sleep.
尽管这类应用多种多样，但是工作原理基本上都是让使用者在早上选择一段愿意起床的时间，大约20到40分钟，然后这段时间内，在使用者睡得最轻的时候把他们叫醒。睡眠者每天早上都会得到一个分数，这个分数主要是由他们睡眠时间所影响，同时考虑其他因素对分数进行加减，如使用者受到的干扰和处于深度修复睡眠阶段的时间所占的比例。这类软件还让使用者记录日常习惯，如咖啡因的摄入量、锻炼习惯和饮食习惯等等，这样就可以了解到使用者的那些习惯会影响其睡眠。
But while some people swear by these tools, scientists caution that the claims they make and the advice they dole out to users may not be very sound.
尽管一些人认可这些软件时，科学家却提醒说这些软件给使用者的承诺和建议或许没有说得那么好。