Preliminary Research About "Sleep"
- Irene (Shiyin Zheng)
- Jan 27, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: May 13, 2019
For this project, we are collaborating with Venturethree and Dreem company. Dreem,
a pioneering French company, has developed a headband "dreem" that transmits pink noise into the ear at a specific moment of brain activity. Venturethree, a brand company based in London, developed the brand idea ‘Wake up to sleep’ focusing on the impact of good quality sleep on waking life.
In the following weeks, we would be considering sleep from Micro "body as system" and Macro "society and sleep" perspectives and developing our ideas to answer the question "How can Dreem further enhance peoples’ lives using neurotechnology?".
Desk Research
The purpose of doing literature reviews on sleep is to help us better understand the background context that DREEM and Venturethree is dealing with. Before we start the research, we made a list of research directions, in order to do a thorough research about sleep and get ourselves background information for the topic. We categorised the direction into five aspects:
1.Background information
history
culture
types of sleep
sleep problems (what society are concerned about)
sleep organisations
2. Basic neurology
sleep stages
circadian rhythm
sleep disorders
environment
3. Market
existing sleep products
4. Dreem research
5. Art/Installations ideas
We distributed the tasks and I was in charge of the background and art work ideas parts. I looked into the history of sleep and found some interesting points there.
Change of the sleep pattern and the "watching" period
In the past, the ancients did not suffer from anxiety about insomnia because they never took sleep for granted in the first place and respect sleep. But now, we see sleep as our due. 'the necessary evil required for a productive and happy life'.
In fact, the sleep pattern has changed since 18th century. Together with the desire for efficiency promoted by industrialisation, the period between sleeps was increasingly considered a pointless disruption of much-needed rest.
This also has biological evidence. Thomas Wehr, a psychiatrist who did an experiment by leaving a group of people in darkness for 14 hours every day in stead of the typical 8 hours for a month, found that by the fourth week, a distinct two-phase sleep pattern emerged.
"Biphasic sleeping is the most natural sleep pattern, and is actually beneficial, rather than a form of insomnia. "
Interestingly, the appearance of sleep maintenance insomnia in the literature in the late 19th century coincides with the period where biphasic sleep start to disappear.
Plus, because our body clock lends itself to such a schedule, it has a reduction in alertness in the early afternoon, which is called the 'post-lunch dip'.
What would people do in this "watching" period?
Basically, people just did anything and everything imaginable.
The watching period, which we used to meditate, to connect with ourselves, disappeared because of the increasing social pressure. We treat sleep as another competition for higher efficiency, and this brings about sleep problems.
Sleep stages
According to the current neurological science, sleep has four stages: wake, light sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep. These are decided by the strength of EEG waves. For deep sleep, there are slow waves on EEG readings, while in REM sleep, brain waves are similar to waking period. The REM stage is important, because most vivid dreams happen in this stage and body does not move in this stage. This period also has relation with the quality of the sleep.
Sleep organisations
We looked into sleep organisations and found that most of them aim to promote research or educate professionals and the public. They educate people on sleeping disorders, sleep apnoea, insomnias, narcolepsy and etc.
Existing sleep products
We also researched about market products concluded them in one graph. We found that most of the existing products focus on the objects in environmental sleep help.
Products on the market:
Smart pillows
Smart clocks
Zeo, fitbit headsets
Dreem EEG
Artworks
I concluded the artworks I found into several kinds: sleep and self-consciousness, the meaning of dream, explore new possible sleep environment, the privacy of sleep in different cultures, criticise the lack of sleep, sleep disorders, sleep periods. Most artists either think sleep in a philosophical way or in a criticising attitude.
Reflections
Ways of researching
Literature research: It is helpful to look at other aspects when you feel unsure about the topic. For sleep, researching about the current products in market is a good way to understand what is the trend or what may be failures. People also suggested us that we can look into campaigns, activities except for products for this. Social organisations, like how they treat sleep problems, and what they have been doing may be useful as well.
Cultural and historical aspects can lead to a macro understanding of the topic.
Practical research: Artworks and installations are also a helpful way to know about some pioneering thoughts and get inspiration.
Move between micro and macro
We forgot about researching different types of users. Instead of focusing only on the single user, we can also compare sleep between different users and see the macro image of sleep. At the same time, we should connect the macro with micro and see how they affect each other.
Keep asking questions while researching
To do a deep research, I should keep myself asking questions. For example, while doing the research about the biphasic sleep, I found the "watching" period. I should then continue asking questions like what is that period, what did people do and what happened after this period disappeared. These questions can help to get into a deeper and thorough research.
References:
Dement WC. The study of human sleep: a historical perspective. Thorax 1998;53:S2-S7.
Jackson, M. Banks, S. (2016) Did we used to have two sleeps rather than one? Should we again?. Available at: https://theconversation.com/did-we-used-to-have-two-sleeps-rather-than-one-should-we-again-57806 (Accessed: 18 January 2019).
Randall, K. (2012) ‘Rethinking Sleep’, Today’s Paper, (September), pp. SR1.
Hgarty, S. (2012) The myth of the eight-hour sleep. BBC World Service. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783 (Accessed: 18 January 2019).
Barton, L. (2012) Sleep: why they used to do it twice a night. Opinion, Sleep. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/feb/24/sleep-twice-a-night-anxiety (Accessed: 18 January 2019).
Wolchover, N. (2011) Busting the 8-Hour Sleep Myth: Why You Should Wake Up in the Night. Live science. Available at: https://www.livescience.com/12891-natural-sleep.html (Accessed: 18 January 2019).
Nielsen Norman Group. (2019) Quantitative User-Research Methodologies: An Overview. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/quantitative-user-research-methods/. (Accessed 21 January 2019).
Nielsen Norman Group. (2019). When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/which-ux-research-methods/ (Accessed 21 Jan. 2019).
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