Bouts of insomnia often strike at the worst of times such as the night before an important presentation at work, or before your wedding (in this case, insomnia may be accompanied by strong feelings of nausea which unfortunately this piece of software doesn’t claim to help). If you have either the problem of not being able to sleep, or the inverse condition of not being able to stay awake properly, perhaps it’s time to Pzizz.

Pzizz is a downloadable software application that will play randomly selected soundtracks to either clear your mind so you can have a quick, rejuvenating nap (energiser module), or it will calm you to fall into a deep sleep (sleep module).

After installing and activating Pzizz, I went through the quick process of exporting the “default energiser” soundtrack to my iPod via iTunes. Next I found myself lying on the couch listening to “50 per cent voice and 50 per cent music” though at the start it seemed a bit more like 99 percent voice as I found it to be really distracting. After I got used to what I was listening to though, the combined music and narration did get me dozing off within about 5 minutes.

I had set the alarm to wake me after 20 minutes which it did, albeit rather loudly and abruptly. I would have preferred a gentle lulling back into the land of the living, but perhaps in their infinite sleep wisdom, Pzizz’s swift wake-up call is what is required to feel rested and energised.

I took this nap late on a Saturday afternoon and have to say that it prepared me well for a night out. It did such a good job of keeping me up all night, that I decided to try out the sleep module to attempt a deep, calm, Pzizz-aided sleep the next night. Again, I was sent off to sleep relatively quickly but unfortunately kept waking up as my earphones slipped out every time I rolled over in bed. An obvious solution to this is to play the Sleep Module through speakers, but if no one else in your room is keen on being aided to sleep by a random voice speaking to you, this may not be so practical.

So, my sleeping patterns aside, how does Pzizz actually work? Well the soundtracks provide a combination of voice, music and a binaural beat which is supposed to induce theata brainwaves to help you remain in dreamland. What I do like about this concept, is that you get a wide range of different and randomly selected soundtracks which makes Pzizz different to other sleep-help CDs in that you don’t get bored with listening to the same music over and over again.

If you have trouble sleeping, I would definitely recommend trying out Pzizz, as it’s backed by research and is very easy to use. However, if you’re renowned for being able to sleep through a New Year’s Eve party, it’s probably not worth shelling out the £27 ($50 USD) for the energiser and sleep module licences.

On the other hand, if your power naps during the day increase your productivity at work, this may well be worth the initial investment which will, in the long term, pay for itself. Sounds like a stretch to nap at your desk? Big companies such as Nike and British Airways claim to use it on their employees, so it may not be such a daft idea after all!

Don’t let my revived party antics be the judge though, try power napping yourself for free over at Pzizz.

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3. Snore Stopper: Try a little shock therapy with that snoring partner!
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5. Scientists Warning: Loud Music + Earphones = Potential Hearing Loss