There has been a spate of new products recently which promise to monitor every aspect of your life.  My favorite is the Zeo Sleep Monitor, pictured above.  With this handy device, you wear a headband while sleeping which monitors your sleep patterns (how often you wake up, the amount of REM you’re getting and so on), and wirelessly transmits them to a base unit on your nightstand for full study in the morning.  (It also doubles as a powerful contraceptive.)

Who could be without such a device, I ask you?

Black & Decker, everyone’s favorite power tool company, have just produced the ‘Power Monitor’, which attaches to your electricity meter and wirelessly transmits data to a handheld unit detailing your household electricity consumption. This allows you to track how much power each appliance uses so that you can lead a greener, cheaper life.

Of course, there’s the good old Nike + iPod which allows you to track your workout data on your iPod and then synch to your computer, so that you can capture your data, graph it and, presumably, blog about it.

For someone who found the pedometer exciting, these are truly important breakthroughs.

All of these products amount to a trend, it seems to me.  We instinctively realize that what gets measured, gets fixed.  We don’t trust our own judgements and so want to measure it objectively.

The mainstreaming of personal data is likely to make people more comfortable with the idea of ongoing measurement  generally.  What’s really significant is the deep personalization of the data.  Once we start  to match private stats with addressable media, lots of possibilities emerge.  Could Ambien provide a web app that links to the Zeo?  Could Con Ed send data from the Black & Decker Power Monitor to your smart phone?  Nike has, of course, already built an online community around Nike + iPod.

It will also cause a tremendous leap forward in addressable advertising.  People taking medications could get compliance prompts (as in Nudge).  Appliance manufacturers could send energy saving tips.

Measuring such marketing will be a lot richer too and a lot more useful.  It will take the principles of behavioral marketing to new levels.  And it can all be done in your sleep.