At this point in the school year, school and work and all my other activities combined are beginning to take their toll. I can’t get enough sleep, and yet I can’t afford to get too much….sound familiar? For the many of us that are in the same boat, Pzizz is a new software that claims it can help with our erratic sleep cycles. Pzizz claims it can treat sleep problems and make your life better. It comes with two types of software – one to help you take a power nap during the day (the Energizer module) and one to help you fall asleep at night (the Sleep module).

I’ve been studying/getting work done/procrastinating all and feeling slightly exhausted, but I can’t afford to sleep more than 20 minutes before I have to get back to work so I decided to test drive the Pzizz “Energizer” software, which is supposed to give you a 20-minute energizing power nap, as energizing as a cup of coffee.

When I put on the software, it gives me a warning to make sure I am in a place where I will not be disturbed at all. Fair enough. So I lock my door, shut off my phone, close my Outlook inbox and log off of Gmail. I’m not expecting much out of this software, but if I’m going to give it a try I might as well do it right.

The first thing I hear is the soothing voice of one of those guys you might expect to hear on a meditation tape, telling me to relax and take a deep breath and generally coaching me to sleep to the sound kind of like new-wave, mellow music. I liked it, but could not get the persistent thoughts of my workload and my to-do list out of my head.

20 minutes later, I wake up to a loud beeping and realize I actually did get close somewhere in the vicinity of 10 minutes of good sleep out of that. And, for once in my life, I successfully took a twenty-minute “power nap” without oversleeping my cell phone alarm and turning it into a three-hour nap. That, I must say, is something of an achievement. In short, Pzizz may not have energized me as much as the caramel nut latte I am craving right now would have, but it kind of got halfway there. And it makes power napping possible, which is no easy feat. I’d have to say in the end a Red Bull or a strong espresso might do the trick better, but Pzizz can provide a healthier, less addictive, caffeine-free alternative to help you get energized and sleep better.