Concept 1: Healthy Sleep

Unhealthy sleep is a common problem these days, especially among students in high school or university. Disruption of sleeping patterns can lead people to feel awake or sleepy when they should feel the reverse. We thought to give people a visual indication of how healthy their sleep patterns are. While direct readouts could give a precise answer, it doesn’t convey the feeling of being tired or awake. So, we thought to give that across with a human analogue: a mannequin.

A drooping mannequin easily shows tiredness, while a standing one indicates wakefulness. Making the mannequin reflect the user’s sleepiness will draw more attention to it and hopefully encourage reflection on how tired they feel. It is our hope that this will result in improved sleeping patterns for the users.

The Healthy Sleep prototype is comprised of an Arduino board, a mannequin which represents your wakefullness and at least one accelerometer which will attach to the user’s mattress. Inspired from the Sleep Cycle app for the iPhone, the Arduino will detect when you are asleep or awake - then use this data to estimate your current wakefullness. The mannequin will be adjusted accordingly through the use of a pull-string on a motor or a piece of muscle wire.