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Few of us make money by losing sleep.But three graduate students at Brown University in
Providence built a company around sleep deprivation.
Jason Donahue, Ben Rubin and Eric Shashoua were working late nights in Brown's business
and engineering schools-and began thinking about ways to sleep better.
They discovered they weren't alone in burning the midnight oil.Around 20% of Americans get
less than six hours of rest a night.
The friends imagined a smart alarm clock that could track how much time we spend in the most
restorative(促使康复的) stages of the sleep cycle:REM(快速眼动) and deep sleep.What would it
cost to design such a thing?Five years of research,20 employees, $ 14 million in funding and a whole
lot of doubting from investors and scientists.
The company, Zeo, based in Newton, Mass., launched its product in June.The Zeo device uses
a headband with tiny sensors(传感器) that scan your brain for signs of four sleep states:REM, light,
deep and waking sleep.The smart alarm clock displays a graph of your sleep pattern and wakes you
as you're transitioning out of REM sleep (which is when you're least sleepy). In the morning you can
upload the data to the company's website, and so track your sleep over time.The cost, $ 399, includes
six months' access to one of Zeo's online sleep coaches.Most of the feedback comes in the form of
Zeo's ZQ score showing how well you've slept.
"Zeo allows people to unlock this black box of sleep, "says Dave Dickinson, a healthcare CEO.
Whether any of this actually improves sleep is up to the consumer, who will also need to make lifestyle
changes like cutting out alcohol before bedtime or caffeine after 3 p. m..
For now the company is selling Zeo online only.Dickinson also plans to expand to countries such as
Australia, where sleep deprivation approaches US levels.

1. Why did the three students imagine a smart alarm clock?
A. To earn enough money for a scholarship.
B. To wake them up on time in the morning.
C. To record the length of their sleep time.
D. To improve the quality of their sleep.

2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. It took 14 employees five years to develop the product.
B. Their research received a lot of support from investors.
C. About one in five Americans suffers from poor sleep.
D. Alcohol or caffeine before bedtime affects sleep.

3. Which is the correct order of how the Zeo device works?
a. wake you when you're least sleepy
b. scan your brain for sleep signs
c. get the Zeo's ZQ score
d. show a graph of your sleep pattern
e. upload the data to the company's website
A. d, b, a, e, c
B. b, a, d, c, e
C. d, b, a, c, e
D. b, d, a, e, c

4. The Zeo's ZQ score is connected with________.
A. the quality of sleep
B. the length of sleep
C. the time of waking up
D. the time of going to bed

5. From the passage we can learn that________.
A. Zeo will have a direct effect on users' lifestyles
B. Zeo will have better results if users make proper changes
C. Zeo is reported to be well received in Australia
D. Zeo can now be bought either in stores or online

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