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• Reviewed on: AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor running Windows Vista.

Pzizz is a computer program based on the concept that people who are suffering from sleep deprivation, an all-too-common malady in our go-go technology culture, can have it cured by technology, with a little popular psychology and New Age thinking thrown in. It blends voice, music, and a variety of audible and sub-audible sounds to generate an audio file that lulls a listener into three kinds of restorative sleep: a nap, a "power nap" or a full night of sleep.

Brainwave Enterprises, its maker, calls it an "overall life-enhancement tool," though it's basically a just device to help induce sleep without drugs. The main difference between it and the many relaxation CDs, white-noise and self-hypnosis systems that have been popular for the past three or four decades is that Pzizz generates "billions" of different files, which can be exported to an MP3 player, burned to a CD, or played on a media-sharing device.

It is also based on principles laid down by Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), one of those 1970s-era New Age self-actualization programs promoted on late-night TV infomercials. It regards the brain as a computer whose language can be reprogrammed to enrich life in business or at home, reduce stress levels, improve interpersonal relationships, increase self-esteem, heighten motivation, extend communication skills (and, I bet, improve your sex life).

Skeptics have doubted NLP's claims for years, but come up with little substantial criticism beyond the accusation that although it does no harm, there is no proof NLP works — except that the amount of money NLP practitioners charge the public for their seminars is suspicious, considering the lack of scientific validity behind the message.

Precisely how NLP fits into Pzizz is murky, but it appears to be behind the stuff spoken by a male voice on the sound tracks. It says things in honeyed tones about framing your thinking into restful and recuperative patterns while music and sounds play in the background. "Now rest is on your mind, but soon it will be on your body," it says at one point; "Thoughts are just thoughts, and not reality." "Rest and recovery go together." "When it's time for you to wake up and return to your day, I'll gently call and remind you that it's time to return. Now simply relax and allow yourself to enjoy a deeply refreshing and pleasant nap."

The Voice (there's only one; alas, there's no female voice) is supported by the music, which is heavy on marimbas, Peruvian pan-pipes, harps and chimes, and by non-musical sounds that lean heavily on seashore noises, such as crashing waves and wind, and sound effects familiar to fans of science-fiction movies.

This is not a flip observation. Brainwave Enterprises includes in its palette of sounds something called "binaural beats," two tones of different frequencies, one in each ear, one at 400 Hz and one of 410 Hz; the brain resolves the difference in frequency as a beating pulsation. Though first discovered in 1839, binaural beats became a tool for neurological research only in the mid-1970s, about the time that NLP was devised. The makers of Pzizz base their use of it on the idea that brainwaves will adjust to these beats, and so they can be used to change the way a brain behaves.

With all this attention to barely audible sounds, it's natural to wonder whether Pzizz uses the power of suggestion while it pumps its relaxation messages into our subconscious minds while we sleep. Does Pzizz lull us or control us? What is The Voice saying when we actually drift off? Should we worry? How about reassuring us with a script?

Pzizz offers other grumbling points for skeptics. Among them is the kind of rapturous acceptance of Pzizz by users who describe their reactions in cultist language ("I was a skeptic but after using Pzizz, I am a convert") or in outright religious terms ("Thank God for Pzizz"). Further, because Pzizz was initially released for Apple's Macintosh platform, some Mac users have embraced Pzizz as a validation of their preferred operating system — and Mac users are known to have aggressive loyalty issues bordering on cultism.

These thoughts are inevitable when being introduced to Pzizz, although they do not directly reflect on the program's performance. In fact, Pzizz, as a simple sleep-helper, is about as effective as anything else I've seen that will put you to sleep, either for a few minutes or a whole night.

I didn't test it under the influence of caffeine or other recreational stimulants, but I assume users serious about sleeping are intelligent enough to avoid pharmaceutical complications. I tried it with an MP3 player and headphones so my wife wouldn't be disturbed (or overly lulled) by it. Although that required waking up at some point and removing the ear buds, the removal was uneventful enough to allow me to fall back asleep right after.

But it did make me wonder about using it in other circumstances. Although the two nap programs are designed for brief rebooting of the energy systems while on the job, they obviously can't be used in an environment involving fabric-covered cubicles, especially the kind with low walls and no privacy. The practice of sleeping on the job, even for a few moments, is on the brink of extinction anyway in a world where technology is based on the notion that we are always available for interruptions.

The first time I tried the device was on an airplane, a short 75-minute hop, which was marked by endless bulletins from the crew about the penalties for disabling the anti-smoking technology in the bathrooms, the sophisticated safety systems on board and the prohibition against any electronic device until a further announcement said we could. In both official languages. There was, in short, no time for a short uninterrupted nap.

No wonder we need more of them.

We who live in these tech-obsessed times can't really use Pzizz's power nap unless we're lucky enough to be working from home or are executives with private offices, a cellphone or desk set that can be shut off and a secretary to ward off co-workers who use the word "team" a lot.

In practical terms, Pzizz involves the installation of the generator part of the program, with separate modules called Energizer and Sleep, as well as free soundtracks, a staggering total of 231 megabytes for the Windows version, not to mention an extra 68 MB of updates — the Mac version is a slender 188 MB by comparison. Since it began its life as a Mac-only program, the download includes Apple's iTunes music service, its QuickTime movie player and software to make loading an iPod with the generated soundtracks easy. Those who don't have iPods will still have to install everything, though putting the tracks into a non-iPod player involves making sure that Pzizz saves its tracks in the MP3 format, not the default MP4, and puts them in the Documents folder before making sure you use a non-Apple synchronization protocol.

Users can listen to the pre-generated 20-minute Default Energizer nap or Sleep Nap, or the 60-minute Default Sleep program, although I have no idea how to differentiate between an Energizer Nap and a Sleep Nap — is it like the difference between a condo and a luxury condo? The default files can be used to generate custom profiles, in which a user can adjust the voice and music volumes separately, select a stereo or "Aurora 3D" sound, adjust the warning delay at the end and the length of play time for the entire file (10 to 60 minutes). To create different files for successive days, an export feature using iTunes can be programmed to produce any number of different files based on the default or custom files.

Hence, Brainwave claims Pzizz can offer "100 billion combinations of soundtrack," and that "no two naps are ever alike." But it would be wise not to try to export anywhere near that number of files at once. It took my machine about four minutes to export one 20-minute custom nap and 20 minutes for a 60-minute one.

So does it work? Yes, it certainly does — for me, at least (and there is no end of fans to be found online). But then there are other systems on the market that will send a listener to la-la land, the main difference among them being personal preference. Certainly, people who like to be on the cutting edge of technology will find Pzizz appealing.

As do I. But then I've been using another high-tech system getting to sleep, and it's a weird one: I play a game of Sudoku on my computer; after about five or six minutes I begin to yawn uncontrollably.

Hey, it works for me.

Pzizz v. 2.6, Brainwave Enterprises (www.pzizz.com), for Mac (OSX 10.4 and later) and PC (Windows XP and Vista). $29.95 per module (Sleep and Energizer) or both for $49.95. A Pzizz hardware device is also available for $147.