Today I spoke to Henry, a Product Analyst from a leading airline firm in US. He mentioned about his physiological changes that his body goes through after travelling and thinks he has a better coping mechanism than his times from childhood. And like others, he has rituals that he likes to follow and do not get affected severely like his friends.

Later that day, we opened our project progress to folks in CIID building for their inputs.

I had an interview with Minna, an editor in a leading Danish magazine. Her working schedule is very erratic and sometimes she get only 2 hrs of sleep. She said that less sleep doesn’t affect her. Her drive and motivation for her work keeps her going and manoeuvres through the day seamlessly. She is has been doing such a job since 1993 and cannot recall the time when she slept in regular manner. According to her, less sleep doesn’t affect her productivity but recognises that its getting more difficult each year.

I spoke to Claudia from IDP 2014 about her experience of working on a similar topic. Her inputs were valid and expressed her apprehensions about the topic but also mentioned the things to avoid.

Francesca, an instructor from Service design and People Centred Research told me to go into the field with a hypothesis and to look into the system of things (Ecosystem map) that surround individuals with sleep deprivation.

I was having a hard time grasping all the information I was reading and there is no end. To put an end to the ocean of knowledge of the subject, I decided that having a conversation with an expert will help me narrow down on the subject.

I Googled “sleep psychologist Copenhagen” and wrote her an email. She replied in 10 mins as opposed to 2 weeks that Francesca warned me about. The next thing I knew that I had half a day to prepare for an interview about the subject to an expert which I fully didn’t understand.

List the questions prepared for an interview with Dr.Kate Jackson.
Interview with Dr. Kate Jackson

Goal: Introduction and making the person comfortable
Duration: 5 minutes

• when do you start your day usually?
• how does your day look like?
• how long have you been practicing for?
• how many patients do you get for sleep disorder in a month?
  

Goal: Questions related to her patients
Duration: 6 minutes

• what age group do they normally belong to?
• Is there any common pattern that you have noticed amongst them?
• what do you think are some of the causes?
• is there any story that comes to your memory?
• at what stages of the disorder do people seek your help?
• how do they realize about the problem?

Goal: Sleep and other factors
Duration: 10 minutes

• how important do you feel the role of lifestyle is on people for sleep disorder?
• is there any connection with addiction and sleep, if so how?
• things that people do just before sleep that affect them in long run?
• what are things you think motivate people to get back on track of good cycle?
• is there any way to re-direct behaviors through external stimuli or are there factors external to our physiology that affect sleep like job, light etc?
• what is the role of anxiety and stress?
• do dietary habits also affect the sleep process?
• does an intimate company in bed help fall asleep better? if yes, how does that happen?
• is there any way to tinker sleeping habits to adapt to change in geography for instance?

Goal: Sleep and after effect
Duration: 5 minutes

• how do you think sleeping disorder affect the physiology and psychology of a person?
• does it also affect our interaction to the outside world?
• how long do you think a person could stay affected by sleep disorder and still function normally?

1. Reading about the subject – my understanding of the subject is just through my experience. I want to read about other people’s experiences. Viewpoints from sleep therapists, doctors, meditation practitioners and general masses.
   
   
2. Desk research – I am interested to know the scale of sleep problem amongst people from different demographics. A general overview of sleep deprivation/insomnia, common patterns and symptoms.
   
   
3. Interviewing people – have a personal conversation around the subject with people who suffer from insomnia, specialists and people who claim to sleep peacefully every night.
   
4. Synthesis – after gathering all the materials from the research, sort and synthesis them to produce meaningful insights.
   
   

Techfest

Techfest for some was a great opportunity to explore and see whats happening in the tech and design world. Though the my classmates had a mixed reaction to some of the talks on the first day, I went for a talk on Circadian rhythm which aligned with something I was looking.

Christina Blach Petersen and Forrest Webler, a multi disciplinary designer and a student pursuing PhD in civil engineering whose focus was on developing tools to quantify light exposure in large population studies for non-image forming effects, were the presenters.

The talk in a nutshell, helped me understand how light is the biggest contributor to the shift in our circadian rhythm. Along with that Christina asked us to download LYS app from app store. She and her team have developed this app for recognising the impact of light from object and if they were impactful for our sleep or not.

Robotic Somnox

This project mimics an intimate sleeping experience with your loved one. The object breathes just like another human being that you can cuddle with on your bed. Aimed at those struggling to fall asleep. By cuddling up to the pillow – which helps induce a slow, regular rhythm of breathing – users are soothed to sleep.

The interactivity of the device is due to the breathing of the human next to it. The device collects the data i.e., exhaling and inhaling and interprets it for the feedback in form of breathing back, playing music and emitting light in the morning.

These are invaluable assets to someone who is struggling to sleep by themselves and the device fills that void. The device is a synonym to an almost real human by the properties it has inherited. This is a very good example which I am assuming works for the people because it has succeeded in extending beyond just being a design artifact to something humans do and therefore humans may ignore the machine side of the device and embrace its humanity.

Image source https://bit.ly/2l7erAO

Dreem Headband

This project is designed to help people with chronic sleeping problems. It works by monitoring a person's brain activity and emitting sounds that will prolong their periods of deep sleep.

The sounds are relayed via bone conduction – which means the device should be inaudible to any sleeping companions in the bed with the wearer.

As well as the bone-conducting speakers, Dreem incorporates a number of sensors, a CPU (central processing unit) and a few basic controls. All of these had to be incorporated into the headband-like device while keeping it unobtrusive enough to be worn overnight by already light sleepers.

Image source https://bit.ly/2Q686WY

I want my Final Project to …

Final project for me is an opportunity to explore and thorough myself with the design processes. Pursue knowledge about the subject to defend my design decisions and have a strong viewpoint. Testing out the idea to raise conversation around the topic and the prototype are aspired. I would like to use the final project as an opportunity that can act as a facilitator to the outside/real world. I expect this project to serve as a launchpad and usher me into a similar domain in the industry.

I’m interested in/inspired by…

Sleep is one of the key elements of one’s wellness. I have always been intrigued by how sleep can impact one’s psychological and physiological state. Can there be a way in interaction design to intervene or introduce a product that could enhance or disrupt somebody’s sleep to tailor the behavior for some activity (e.g. for a new job in a new continent). Through this process, I am interested in exploring how sleep can lead to a better lifestyle (assumption) and hopefully to a healthy human being.

I am interested in exploring objects/products and, studying the environment of the place and its role in the sleep process.