Sweet Dreams
After researching sleep cycles, this entrepreneur wound up building a better alarm clock.
Working as a stock analyst in Atlanta, Lee Loree, 34, was bored. While reading dull reports at night, he noticed his slumber-ing wife was more alert at certain times. Curious, he started studying sleep cycles. His research and the desire to rouse his workaday routine led to the Sleeptracker, a watch that beeps to wake you during an optimal period of light sleep so you arise less drowsy. It took Loree five years of working with sleep experts and engineers to ready his product.
The invention immediately spoke to a population tired of waking up tired--and 8,000 visitors flooded his site on its second day. “We got bombarded,” says Loree, founder of Innovative Sleep Solutions. Time named Sleeptracker one of the year’s top inventions in 2005, and the product even made an appearance on Dr. Phil. With projected year-end sales of $1 million, Loree hardly ever has slow days anymore--but he still wakes up energized.