Overview
Objective
Scope
This project was undertaken to gain a deeper understanding of sleep and the various factors that influence it, particularly in the context of chronic sleep disorders such as insomnia. It explores the complexities of sleep patterns, psychological and physiological triggers, and the challenges faced by individuals struggling with persistent sleep difficulties. The objective is to develop a potential intervention that can help individuals reach a state of calm, creating an environment conducive to relaxation. By addressing the barriers to restful sleep, the intervention aims to support individuals in gradually easing into sleep more naturally and effectively.
The objective of this project is to develop a deeper understanding of sleep disorders, particularly insomnia, and to design an effective intervention that promotes relaxation and facilitates sleep. Key goals include:
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Understand Sleep Mechanisms – Study the factors influencing sleep and sleep disorders.
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Identify Challenges – Analyze difficulties faced by individuals with insomnia.I
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Explore Solutions – Research existing interventions for improving sleep.
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Develop an Intervention – Create a tool to promote relaxation and sleep
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Evaluate Effectiveness – Test and refine the solution based on user feedback.
This project explores sleep patterns and insomnia, aiming to develop an effective intervention that promotes relaxation and improves sleep quality. It involves researching sleep disorders, analyzing user challenges, and designing a practical solution. Through prototyping and user testing, the intervention is refined for real-world application, bridging the gap between research and practical sleep aids.
Outcome
The outcome of this project is Theta, a compact, handheld breathing assist device designed to help regulate breathing and manage stress-induced sleep disturbances. By synchronizing breath with its guided movement, Theta promotes controlled breathing, fostering relaxation and improving sleep quality. Its portable design ensures ease of use anytime, anywhere, making it a practical solution for those struggling with sleep due to stress and anxiety.
Type
Individual Design & Behavioural Design Project as a part of Academic curriculum.
Key areas
Industrial Design | Multimodal Interaction | Qualitative Research | Prototyping and User Testing | Behavioral Design
01. Research Phase
The research began with an open-ended exploration across three domains—food, gesture analysis, and interior spaces—identifying potential problem areas. As the study progressed, sleep emerged as a dominant focus, highlighting its complexities and impact. This shift led to a deeper investigation into sleep-related challenges, ultimately shaping the direction of the project.
1.1 Building Context
In discussions with visiting faculty Mayukhini Pande, we explored the importance of lived experiences in identifying problem areas. Through my research, I observed a growing focus on sleep in conversations about human physiology. As a student, I recognized the struggle of maintaining adequate sleep, a challenge shared by many peers. Further exploration revealed that sleep-related issues extend beyond students, affecting a significant number of adults as well.
Delving into conversations, ideas and brainstorming in class
1.2 Understanding Sleep
Sleep plays a crucial role in maintaining the body’s overall health by counteracting the damage caused by daily energy production and metabolic activities. Throughout the day, the body generates energy, leading to the production of byproducts like free radicals, which can cause cellular stress and damage. Sleep allows the body to repair and restore itself, clearing out metabolic waste, repairing tissues, and strengthening immune function.
Additionally, sleep is highly responsive to external stimuli, as the brain undergoes neural reorganization to process and store information gathered from the environment. This process, known as synaptic plasticity, helps in learning, memory consolidation, and cognitive function. During deep sleep, neural connections are strengthened or pruned based on experiences, allowing the brain to encode new information while discarding irrelevant data. In this way, sleep not only supports physical recovery but also plays a critical role in mental and cognitive adaptation.
There are two main processes that regulate sleep: circadian rhythms and sleep drive.
When you’re exhausted, your body is even able to engage in microsleep episodes of one or two seconds while your eyes are open. Napping for more than 30 minutes later in the day can throw off your night’s sleep by decreasing your body’s sleep drive.
1.3 What is the professional perspective?
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Creating discipline is also more important when it comes to falling asleep as well. It used to happen earlier when work did not come home with the person.
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Also the people who have their sleep schedules set generally have other things in life in order.
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It is important to bring the person back to the present so that their bodily state goes from sympathetic to parasympathetic.
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In situations which involve overthinking it is important to disconnect the person from their thinking pattern rather than just make it pause for a while.
02. Insight from the Research
Since sleep was the central focus of the research, it was crucial to delve deeper into its broader implications. This meant identifying the key insights and patterns that emerged when examining sleep—what it revealed about user behavior, well-being, and the overall impact on daily life. By extrapolating from the data, we aimed to uncover the most significant themes that could inform design decisions and contribute meaningfully to our understanding of sleep-related experiences.
Among the various sleep disorders we observed during our research, we chose to focus specifically on insomnia. This decision was driven by its increasing prevalence, particularly among middle-aged and older adults. Insomnia stood out not only due to its frequency but also because of its profound impact on overall health, cognitive function, and emotional well-being. By narrowing our focus to this condition, we aimed to address a growing concern that affects a significant portion of the population and has often been overlooked in everyday design considerations.
2.1 Insomnia in the Indian Context
Insomnia was found in 92 (33%) patients - 63 (68%) were female and 29 (32%) were male.
Sixty-three (68%) patients were of age >35 years - of which 43 (68%) were female and 20 (32%) were male.
Fifty percent of patients with diabetes had insomnia compared to 27% without diabetes.
Summarising the above research the following question was derived:
How might we help people feel a soothing embodied sensation when a person is unable to sleep due to an array of continuous thoughts?
03. Ideation Phase
To ideate on a possible solution, It was very important to closely observe the lives of two individuals who had suffered from chronic insomnia and had been clinically diagnosed with it. the observations from their lives were recorded to understand them and create a suitable user persona.
3.1 User Persona
3.2 Precedent Study
For a thorough understanding of the kinds of sleep products available, they were divided into three categories. Some of them which have proved to be effective were explored.
Some existing sleep products in the market
Non - Product based interventions
Guided Meditations
binaural beats frequency
Constant Frequency audios
Nature Sound audios
04. Prototyping
From all the research and observations made, the major challenge was to come to a consensus about how the product would replicate human breath.
For this, two mechanisms were tested out.
Mechanism 1
Since there was a lot of physical evidence that haptic feedback works when it comes to sleep products, the idea was to develop a pulse patch using a coin sized vibration motor to provide controlled haptic feedback.
The idea behind this was to mimic pulse sensations in a physical device that could be mimicked by the mirror neurons in the brain.
Mechanism 2
Stimulate a breath control mechanism by controlling the speed of an air pump. The idea behind this was to create a breathing phenomenon in a physical object that can be felt by the person.
Mechanisms
Form Explorations
4.1 User Testing
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User texting of prototype mechanism.
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The prompt given to the user was to inhale when they feel an inflation and exhale when they feel a deflation
Pros
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They did feel a relaxing sensation when interacting with the prototype.
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The prominent inflation helped them focus their attention back to their breath.
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It helped them to feel their thoughts have been lowered and they could feel a soothing sensation.
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The material outer cover was calming and comforting to touch
Cons
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Since they are on a medication to help with insomnia, they they do not think the product might be as effective
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Medication has a faster reaction rate so if people do not have enough time, they might sometimes skip using the product and still prefer to take a pill.
What should be the salient features?
04. Solution
Future Scope
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The product can be made smarter by adding in various sensors that could give additional information about the user
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Incorporate it to be used for kids in plushies, soft toys etc.