Critical Theory

Poster/Essay Idea/s

2008-09-18T04:08:00.001-07:00

(Sorry I probably waffle on quite a bit but just trying to get all my thoughts and ideas down in one go)

NETV

INTRO: The potato couch has now become the potato swivel-chair. If you thought the world already watched too much television then think again……

STATEMENT:
Internet is the Future of Television

WHAT:
Internet is becoming the future of television

HOW:
The world of internet already offers you games, blogs, banking, research, dictionaries, forums, communities, sell and buy, the list goes on so why not add television, it allows users to possibly achieve more than one task all from the same seat and computer; user friendly and easy. Television is purely jumping on the multimedia bandwagon.

WHY:
Internet is the future of television because it fulfills more of the user’s needs and wants. They can watch it when they please, often where they please, there is often no ads, they can be fast forward, rewind, paused, stopped at any time, they can be watched repeatedly, stored for future watching. Not only all of this but the internet has a broader range of new visuals for users to explore and watch, they can add their own creations to the world of viewing. The TV seems one dimensional in comparison.

WHO/WHERE/WHEN:
The internet is the world wide web, it can be used by anyone with access to a computer, major companies like Google and abs were first to begin the online TV “craze” in 2007. Television through the net can be watched from any location with a computer at any time and more so there are sites where you can access channels from all around the world.

INTIMACY THROUGH DESIGN
Television is one of the main sources of entertainment for an individual (will justify). For that reason alone it is an intimate product. Not the physical properties but mental, spiritual and emotional. Characters play on that emotion and we often can’t help but feel connections to these “people” becoming a form of drug or addiction that we continue to want and need to watch. That is how producers design television, so that we will keep watching. Now they have added our intimacy with our televisions to our intimacy with the internet, combing two major sources of entertainment and designing it so than it meets our every need and fulfillment allowing us to watch our favourite characters and programmes anytime and any place.

DESIGN THEORIES:
Interaction; two participants the user and the internet/web. The net aims in helping the user achieve their aim/task, to find and then provide television, movies, and forms of visual medium for entertainment at a time and place that suits the user.
Ludology; it also touches on ludology, where the user can repeat the above action and store/save it and continue to do so at the users wish. When using the net for television they are not just purely switching channels but are “playing” they are searching the web for best quality, speed and the right programme viewing, exploring and stepping into a temporary new but not unfamiliar place in the users daily life. Net also allows the ability to share and communicate online through these visual mediums.

Tania Hockings

Final

2008-09-04T01:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.taniahockings.com/pdf/sleepFinal.pdf

Imagery

2008-09-04T01:05:00.002-07:00

First draft

2008-09-04T01:05:00.001-07:00

I edited and put all our work together.

Working Paper
Tania, Jeremy, Peter

SleepRite
Don’t just Sleep Tight, SleepRite

Sleep is an intimate part of life; it is a daily ritual and a very personal experience, from our preparation to our dreams to our waking, our sleep prepares us for the day ahead, unfortunately some people do not realise the importance or the impact their sleep has on our daily lives. In today’s fast paced world, sleep seems a luxury, not a need but when you get the best out of your sleep, you get the best out of your day and your quality of life improves drastically. If we deprive ourselves of sleep, we disrupt our very delicate sleep cycles and our body clocks begin to tick to the wrong beat. Through implementing a system of sleep cycle prediction, our product aims to enhance this daily productivity, whether short or long it will provide you with the highest quality of sleep possible within that given time; helping those who struggle with their sleep wake up feeling rejuvenated and ready for their waking day.

Keywords: Sleep, sleep cycle, rejuvenation, quality, productivity

Sleep is nature’s way of allowing our bodies to rejuvenate. Without sleep our bodies are forced to work into overtime without allowing our energy levels to be replenished on a daily basis. In today’s fast pace world a lack of sleep is not uncommon. This is why we would like to create a product (SleepRite) that will aid in “productive” sleep. We cannot control a person’s lifestyle but we can help improve their physical and mental energy by providing them with the best possible sleep.

Many people feel that sleep is a waste of time. “Either consciously or unconsciously, people make decisions about how to allocate their time, including time in bed and time working. A familiar chart on the walls of university students says “Sleep, work, play: pick two”.” We want to target these people that do not have or find the time for a decent night’s sleep, who wake up the following morning and feel unsatisfied.

The majority of people in this group are the busy; the career savvy and/or the family orientated. Every person has an individual sleep cycle, pattern and preparation, but what this set of people do have in common is their inability to enjoy a good nights sleep, considered a mild to extreme form of insomnia. These people make up almost 35% of the world’s population and simply accept bad sleep as a part of their life. It is neither a luxury nor a necessity , for them it is the fact of life.

This “fact of life” has been recognized as a problem and attempted to be fixed in the past and present. Basic methods such as music, hotties, exercise, diet etc work well for different individuals, but products have now been designed specifacally for productive sleep. The Philips Wake-Up Light Alarm Clock works throught light. As your alarm, light increasingly emits from your lamp in replica of the sun, allowing a more natural awakening . Two other products work similarily to our own proposed design, SleepRite. The SleepSmart Headband and SleepTracker Wristwatch both work by tracking sleep cycles, they are monitored through the head band and watch and wake you at the best possible time when you are in the light stage of your sleep cycle. The difference between these products and SleepRite are the usability, there are no additions to wear to bed, it is simply like setting your alarm as usual, except now you will wake up feeling rejuvenated.

When we sleep we go through a cycle of different stages, alternating between almost awake moments (light sleep) and deep sleep. A Full Sleep Cycle is thought to be roughly around 90 minutes long, we go through 5 of these cycles a night dependant on the time frame, the most important stages of sleep are deep sleep and REM sleep. REM (Rapid eye movement) sleep is where we do most of our dreaming and is also the best stage of sleep with which to wake up. By working out what stage of sleep we are in and for how long, we can predict when we will be in the REM stage of sleep and when best to wake the user.

With the SleepRite product the user is able to work out how much sleep he or she needs and able to plan their sleep so that they wake up at the most effective time, refreshed and rearing to go. The sleep prediction software can work in two ways, which ever suits the users lifestyle more fittingly. The user can either input in their desired wake up time and SleepRite will tell them the best time/s to go to bed and then wake them at that set time the following morning; or, the user can set a window, they input the earliest time they would like to wake up and the latest, then tell SleepRite when they have gone to bed, it will then wake them at a point during this window. Through either method the application use sleep cycle analysis to work out at which time would be best for the user to go to sleep or to wake up. It is as simple as that.

To make SleepRite successful and usable to our target audience it needs to be quick, easy to use, compatible, compact, and preferably inexpensive and most importantly does what it says it will do. Because our users will be (to an extent) busy, no nonsense, straight to the point type of people we need our product to appeal to these users and reflect their needs in their type of lifestyle. SleepRite fulfills all these requirements by simply adding to gadgets that people already know intimately.

Gadgets are the present novelty, handy little items of technology that provide a service to us. Often they conveniently sit in our pocket or handbag waiting for our attention, but more often or not, a newer and more advanced model will replace a gadget before you know it. Furthermore, products are becoming obsolete, technology is being incorporated as one, a multimedia machine, why carry two gadgets when you can get them both in just the one? So how do we avoid this happening to SleepRite? Easy, we jump on the bandwagon with them. Our product SleepRite will not be a physical model but a piece of software, a form of “plug-in” application that can be added and integrated to your very own ipod or cellphone, the two most personal gadgets society knows and loves.

The software will work through your calendar and/or alarm clock, allowing you to plan your sleep for weeks or months ahead or on a daily basis. Using the simple calendar and alarm clock interface that user is already well familiar with the user can set at which time he or she wishes to get up on particular days. Again, using the sleep cycle system your “gadget” will enable the software’s alarm feature to wake the user at the perfect time of the sleep cycle, letting the user feel fresh and ready to get up, beginning a productive day through the best sleep possible.

Sleep is one of the most important aspects of out lives, without it we start to falter in our daily activities, by using SleepRite the user will feel both refreshed and rejuvenated upon waking up can make the most of the day to come. Whether short or long SleepRite will allow you to make the most out of ever night’s sleep. Don’t just sleep tight, SleepRite.

My Writing parts

2008-09-04T01:04:00.002-07:00

We want to target these people that do not have or find the time for a decent night’s sleep, who wake up the following morning and feel unsatisfied. The majority sitting in this group is the busy, the career savy and/or the family orientated, to make a product successful and usable to this target audience it needs to be quick, easy, compatible, compact, preferably inexpensive and most importantly does what it says it will do. Our product aims to fulfill these requirements.

Gadgets are the present novelty, handy little items of technology that provide a service to us. Often they can conveniently sit in our pocket or handbag waiting for our attention, but more often or not they will be replaced by a newer and more advanced version before you know it and furthermore your product has become obselte, they have incorporated it with something else, why carry two gadgets when you can get them both in just the one? So how do we avoid this happening to our product? Easy, we jump on the banwagon with them. We propose designing a product as rather than just a physical model but more a piece of software, a form of “plugin” that can be added to you ipod or cellphone, the two gadgets society does not live with out. This plugin could work in two different ways, through your calendar and/or alarm clock, you can let it plan your sleep for weeks or months ahead or on a daily basis.
Sleep is natures way of allowing our bodies to rejuvenate. Without sleep our bodies are forced to work into overtime without allowing our energy levels to be replenished on a daily basis. In todays fast pace world a lack of sleep is not uncommon and goes as far as different levels of insomnia in a majority of cases. This is why we would like to create a product that will aid in “productive” sleep. We cannot control a persons lifestyle but we can help improve their physical and mental energy by providing them with the best possible sleep.

Many people feel that sleep is a waste of time. “Either consciously or unconsciously, people make decisions about how to allocate their time, including time in bed and time working. A familiar chart on the walls of university students says “Sleep, work, play: pick two”.” http://www.sleepdex.org/economics.htm

Highlighted Research

2008-09-04T01:04:00.001-07:00

"quality of wakening".
more natural way to get you out of bed.
nature intended us to be woken by gently increasing sunlight
production of cortisol, the energy hormone
light, aromatherapy and sound effects
I get more stuff done
we didn’t feel as grumpy and cloth-headed as usual. We had a few complaints. For one, several buttons are located on the top of the device – this makes them hard to find without actually getting up and looking down at the clock
This is based on the principle that energy hormone, cortisol should be activated to wake up without any fuss. We are not aware of the fact that it is not that we are purposefully lazy to wake up after hearing the bell go, but the brain the energy hormone is not triggered
Many people feel that sleep is a waste of time. They have busy lives with work and families so they try to squeeze every minute out of every day. They finally surrender to sleep when they are absolutely exhausted. The problem they are not recognizing is that when you are sleep deprived, you are forcing your body to work at a disadvantage. An exhausted body cannot work to it’s full potential, mentally or physically.
that the lack of sleep affects your physical, mental, and emotional life
deprived of sleep for a period of two weeks, it reduced their mental abilities. This included alertness, reaction time, and memory.
Sleep is natures way of allowing our bodies to rejuvenate
Sleep can seriously affect our appetite. Our brain interprets lack of sleep as hunger. While we sleep our bodies secrete a hormone called leptin. Leptin is what tells our brain that we are full when we eat
Either consciously or unconsciously, people make decisions about how to allocate their time, including time in bed and time working. A familiar chart on the walls of university students says “Sleep, work, play: pick two”.
"Dawn comes soon enough for the working class" - Exene Cervanka and John Doe
This set of people prefers very busy schedule and social engagements, and only surrender to sleep when extremely tired. In contrast, others would give anything for a good night sleep.
Researchers have established that sleep is a complex process regulated by the brain and it obeys a 24-hour biological clock. They also assert that some adults appear to need only three hours of sleep a day; others need up to ten hours.
Today, millions of people have difficulty sleeping well. Sleep specialists posit that an estimated 35 percent of the world’s population suffer from insomnia – the inability to enjoy normal and sufficient sleep. They assert described sleeping badly as “one of the most serious epidemics of the turn of the century.” Many insomniacs suffer in ignorance. They simply accept sleeping badly as part of life and resign themselves to spending their waking hours feeling irritated and drowsy. To these, sleep is neither a luxury nor a necessity.
Sleeping late for just a couple of days can reset your body clock to a different cycle -- you'll be getting sleepy later and waking up later.
So when you get up, go outside and get some sunlight. Or if that's difficult, turn on all the lights in your room
When you sleep less, you should be more active during the day. Being less active is one of the worst things an insomniac can do.
Be regular.
same time every night can make sleep as regular as hunger.
, go to bed later when you are having trouble sleeping
Do something that's relaxing
Find your own sleep-promoting routine.
Warm bath, yes; shower, no
snooze much better after listening to 45 minutes of quiet music before bed
is relaxing, and it soothes them to sleep.

The cold weather when its raining is what drives people to sleep..primarily because its so good to sleep when its cold.
listening to soft music at bedtime may help older people to sleep better and for longer.
Overall those in the music group slept for longer and had better sleep
free of daily worries that can make a difference to sleep. Good bedtime habits can help people to sleep well all year round.
"switch off" when it is time to go to sleep
only going to bed when you are tired and ready to go to sleep. Reading and watching TV in bed could actually make it harder to sleep. If people cannot sleep, it is better for them to get out of bed and do something else rather than focusing on trying to sleep.

Getting up at the same time every morning can help too.
Waking up abruptly by the sound of an alarm clock is an inherently unnatural thing to do.
The problem lies in what you're doing when you're suddenly woken up from your slumber.

When you wake up during "light" sleep, you wake up rested and feeling good
Nature did not intend for us to wake up during "deep" sleep.

This guy claims to sleep in 90 minute intervals to attempt to wake up during "light" sleep.
SleepSmart, makes you wear a headband or something around your head while you sleep. SleepTracker
1. Set an alarm to go off before the latest time you want to wake up.
o Make the alarm really quiet radio or music.

2. Set a second alarm to go off at the latest time you want to wake up.
o This is your regular alarm that will wake you up no matter what.
Create a night time routine that prepares you for the following day.
Light to moderate exercise, such as walking or jogging for
If you haven't showered the night before a hot shower followed by about 1 minute
Give your body a chance to wake up before you take in any food.
person to both assess the quality of a night's sleep and wake up more refreshed
Within a pre-set thirty minute window, SleepSmart activates a friendly alarm during the last moments of lighter sleep.
. One constant problem is that I need to sleep and I feel that the time is wasted. Even worse is when I wake to my alarm to discover that I am groggy and waste even more time in an unproductive funk.
Have you ever felt that you have had a full night’s sleep, but you still feel tired when your alarm rings?
The average adult experiences 4-5 full sleep cycles over an 8-hour period. Each cycle lasts about 90-110 minutes and comprises five different stages
No two people have the same sleep cycles, and nobody has the same cycle twice. Many factors can influence sleep cycles, including diet, exercise, medications, drugs or alcohol, stress, sleep disorders, and sleep deprivation. Age and gender can play a role, too: women tend to sleep more soundly than men, and as we age, we sleep more restlessly.
By monitoring your sleep cycles for optimal waking moments during the preset ALARM WINDOW, SLEEPTRACKER® finds those almost awake-moments and gently wakes you when you're most alert
This set of people prefers very busy schedule and social engagements, and only surrender to sleep when extremely tired. In contrast, others would give anything for a good night sleep.
Researchers have established that sleep is a complex process regulated by the brain and it obeys a 24-hour biological clock. They also assert that some adults appear to need only three hours of sleep a day; others need up to ten hours.
Today, millions of people have difficulty sleeping well. Sleep specialists posit that an estimated 35 percent of the world’s population suffer from insomnia – the inability to enjoy normal and sufficient sleep. They assert described sleeping badly as “one of the most serious epidemics of the turn of the century.” Many insomniacs suffer in ignorance. They simply accept sleeping badly as part of life and resign themselves to spending their waking hours feeling irritated and drowsy. To these, sleep is neither a luxury nor a necessity.
For one, several buttons are located on the top of the device – this makes them hard to find without actually getting up and looking down at the clock
The average adult experiences 4-5 full sleep cycles over an 8-hour period. Each cycle lasts about 90-110 minutes and comprises five different stages
No two people have the same sleep cycles, and nobody has the same cycle twice. Many factors can influence sleep cycles, including diet, exercise, medications, drugs or alcohol, stress, sleep disorders, and sleep deprivation. Age and gender can play a role, too: women tend to sleep more soundly than men, and as we age, we sleep more restlessly.

SleepSmart/Tracker

2008-08-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

sleep optimized.
Originally inspired by debilitating morning fatigue that followed late night study sessions, Axon Labs has created a true innovation within the sleep industry. Project SleepSmart™ allows a person to both assess the quality of a night's sleep and wake up more refreshed.
Project SleepSmart is a two-part product. A comfortable, wireless headband collects sleep data through proprietary soft sensors that rest on the forehead. The headband wirelessly sends the sleep data to the base station for real-time processing in a sophisticated algorithm. Within a pre-set thirty minute window, SleepSmart activates a friendly alarm during the last moments of lighter sleep.
Forty years of research has shown that waking from deeper sleep results in a longer duration of sleep inertia and morning grogginess. SleepSmart decreases the severity of sleep inertia by waking the sleeper from a lighter phase of sleep. However, SleepSmart is far more powerful as it also helps people learn how to sleep better by providing information on the duration, depth and continuity of each night's sleep. We look forward to unveiling this exciting new product in 2008.
http://www.axonlabs.com/technology/sleepsmart.html

Product Review: Sleeptracker and SleepSmart
As a graduate student I am naturally obsessed with my productivity and on a constant mission to find devices and methods to improve my efficiency and quality of life. One constant problem is that I need to sleep and I feel that the time is wasted. Even worse is when I wake to my alarm to discover that I am groggy and waste even more time in an unproductive funk. Sleep researchers have long known that the brain goes through various sleep cycles during the night and that it is best to awake when brain waves are in a certain pattern. This knowledge has been used to help chronic insomniacs get at least a minimal amount of helpful sleep, but it is clearly also useful for students who want to spend as little time sleeping as possible without losing mental acuity while awake. I experimented with timing my sleep cycles as an undergraduate, but in order to reliably work one needs to be observed and awoken at the appropriate time. Now there is technology to the rescue! A company SleepTracker has developed a wristwatch that detects movement correlated with "light sleep" and activates an alarm to make sure that you wake up during that period, and as close to your desired wake time as possible. Even better is an upcoming product by SleepSmart. Theirs is a headband that actually detects the appropriate brainwaves and wakes you up at the optimal point in your sleep cycle that occurs prior to your desired wake time. You'll always wake up in time and fully invigorated by your sleep (no snooze button pushing anymore). The SleepTracker costs $150 and is available from their website. The SleepSmart system is clearly better, but it isn't available yet. According to their website they project the cost to be in the $300 to $400 range and you can reserve one now (I did). Is it worth it? Just determine your minimal hourly wage and see how many hours it will have to rescue from the abyss of unproductiveness. For example, if you could use that time to earn $20 an hour, then it only has to save you 20 hours…if it saves you five hours a week then it's worth (5*52*$20=) $5200 for just one year's use. If you're a graduate student then you NEED this!http://aaronbramson.blogspot.com/2006/03/product-review-sleeptracker-and.html

SleepSmart Headband Alarm Clock Wakens You From Light Sleep Stage
A company called Axon Sleep Research Laboratories has developed a headband alarm clock that awakens you when you are not in a deep stage of sleep.
Have you ever felt that you have had a full night’s sleep, but you still feel tired when your alarm rings? When we sleep, we repeatedly move through several cycles of brain activity. It is incorrectly believed that an extra 15 minutes of sleep would make us feel better. What actually makes us feel alert and energetic, however, is being awoken out of the right sleep cycle.
The scientific community has known about this phenomenon for decades, but the technology has not existed to take advantage of it — until now. Enter SleepSmart: an intelligent alarm clock that monitors your sleep cycles as you sleep, waking you at the ideal moment from the optimal stage of sleep. This optimal moment might be several minutes prior to your set alarm time. However, when you wake up, you will be refreshed and ready for action — just as if you had awoken naturally.
The device is worn on your head and it analyses your EEG brain wave to decide when to awaken you. The device does not appear to be on sale yet.
They claim that being awakened from a lighter stage of sleep will cause a person to feel less tired.
SleepSmart’s technology is based on the existence of sleep cycles. For the sake of simplicity, we will classify the cycles into 3 categories: light, deep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Recent scientific research has learned that the way one feels after waking up is determined not by the length of sleep, but rather the sleep cycle from which that person awakens. When awoken from deep sleep, the sleeper feels groggy, tired, and grumpy. However, if someone wakes up from a lighter stage of sleep, no matter how many hours they slept, they still wake up recharged, invigorated, energetic and alert.
SleepSmart capitalizes on this finding by waking people only from light sleep. In order to do this, users wear a soft headband that passively monitors the brain. The end result is the aversion of sleep inertia and the production of a more energetic, attentive and happy morning.
The headband is the idea of a group of Brown University students.
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/002725.html

How does SLEEPTRACKER® work?
SLEEPTRACKER® continuously monitors signals from your body that indicate whether you are asleep or awake. Because you wear SLEEPTRACKER® on your wrist like a watch, its internal sensors can detect even the most subtle physical signals from your body. SLEEPTRACKER® finds your best waking moments, so that waking up has never been easier.
When you sleep, your body goes through a series of sleep cycles. The average adult experiences 4-5 full sleep cycles over an 8-hour period. Each cycle lasts about 90-110 minutes and comprises five different stages, as illustrated by this chart.
No two people have the same sleep cycles, and nobody has the same cycle twice. Many factors can influence sleep cycles, including diet, exercise, medications, drugs or alcohol, stress, sleep disorders, and sleep deprivation. Age and gender can play a role, too: women tend to sleep more soundly than men, and as we age, we sleep more restlessly.
A typical sleep cycle has five stages and takes 90-110 minutes. During Stage 1 of your sleep cycle, you sleep lightly. At Stage 2, your sleep gets progressively deeper. At Stages 3 and 4, also known as "Delta Sleep," you sleep most heavily; this is when your body rebuilds itself.
Stage 5 of sleep, also known as REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, is marked by extensive physiological changes, such as accelerated respiration, increased brain activity, rapid eye movement, and muscle relaxation. People dream during REM sleep.
In the first third of the night, Delta sleep stages last longer than REM stages. As the night progresses, Delta sleep diminishes in length. By the last third of the night, Delta sleep usually ceases, while REM stages lengthen.
SLEEPTRACKER® may find multiple almost-awake moments within the sleep cycle. Almost-awake moments may also vary in frequency throughout the night.
By monitoring your sleep cycles for optimal waking moments during the preset ALARM WINDOW, SLEEPTRACKER® finds those almost awake-moments and gently wakes you when you're most alert. The result? You wake up refreshed instead of groggy. Waking up has never been easier.
Worn like an everyday watch, SLEEPTRACKER® is ideal for anyone who wants to wake up alert and ready to start the day, such as frequent travelers across time zones, business people looking for an extra edge, students with fluctuating schedules, or busy moms who need to wake up easily
The Key to Waking Up RefreshedWhy is it so hard to wake up to a normal alarm clock? Because a normal alarm clock can't detect where you are in your sleep cycle - a continuous cycle from deep sleep, to brief almost-awake moments, and back to deep sleep again. Occasionally, your alarm may catch you at an optimal, almost-awake moment and you wake up feeling refreshed, but usually you grope for the snooze button waking up tired and groggy.Wake at Your Perfect TimeSLEEPTRACKER® puts an end to that tired feeling. Once you set its alarm window, it monitors your body and continuously looks for your optimal waking times so it can wake you at just the right moment. Imagine not feeling tired in the morning and getting a few extra minutes out of your day.
http://www.sleeptracker.com/how-it-works.html
Update: If you think the SLEEPTRACKER watch is cool, check out our video of the SLEEPPHASE Alarm Clock!
A few weeks ago we told you about a product called SLEEPTRACKER. The SLEEPTRACKER watch is unique in that while it tells you the time and has a built-in alarm like every other digital watch, this one actually monitors your sleep and wakes you at the moment that your body would best adjust from moving from a sleeping state to being awake. Does it live up to the hype? Find out after the jump.
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
The SLEEPTRACKER doesn’t come in a fancy package, nor does it contain any sort of add-in accessory. Of course, I didn’t expect either of these things. It is simply a watch. The box basically lets the buyer know what features they can expect out of the product. On the back there is an interesting chart that shows the typical adult sleep pattern. Seeing this changed my mindset from believing that the product was a gimmick, to thinking that is just might be the real thing.
The watch itself is actually very basic in its presentation. Don’t expect to turn heads by wearing it. Don’t get me wrong, as it doesn’t look bad – just average. There are four buttons on the watch – Mode, Set, Glo, and a fourth that is unlabeled. This fourth button can be explained as a “down” or “minus” button. It is used when setting the time, to reduce the number shown. Now, the action takes place on the back of the watch. There is a tiny area that you can see is what will monitor your sleeping state, letting the alarm know when to sound.
SETTING UP THE SLEEPTRACKER
The SLEEPTRACKER came with batteries already installed, so all I needed to do was program in the time and date, along with my preferences. Here is how it went:
Alarm: While this sounds self-explanatory, it really isn’t. The SLEEPTRACKER’s goal is to wake you up and the most optimal time for your body to not feel tired and sluggish. The time that you set on the alarm is actually the latest time that you want to wake up. I set mine to wake me up no later than 6:00 AM.
Window: The window setting allows you one of four choices - :00, :10, :20, or :30. Let me explain this one as well. The window setting is basically the number of minutes before your alarm that you will allow the SLEEPTRACKER to wake you up. Since it monitors your sleep pattern for the optimal moment to wake you, you need to give it a window of time so that it can choose the point within that given time period that you are most awake. I set mine to wake me up whenever it felt best within a 30-minute window. The earliest it would wake me would be 5:30 AM, and the latest was 6:00 AM.
To Bed: The To Bed setting is the time you expect to go to bed. The SLEEPTRACKER starts to monitor your sleep pattern thirty minutes after the time you specify in the To Bed area. I set this to midnight, which meant the SLEEPTRACKER would start monitoring my sleep at 12:30 AM – whether I am in bed or not.
Data: As the SLEEPTRACKER monitors your sleep through the night, it saves the times that you were the most awake during the night. You can review this information on the Data screen. It doesn’t really help you much, but it is interesting to take a look at your sleep pattern.
USING THE UNIT
Okay, this is the easy part for a change. The only thing that the SLEEPTRACKER needed to do to be a success were:
· Tell the time
· Wake me up without me feeling sluggish or overly tired within my specified window
· Monitor my sleep data correctly
Now, I had no doubt that the SLEEPTRACKER would perform just fine as a digital watch, which it did. Setup was simple, and after it was done, I could tell the time and date. However, this watch sells because it wakes you up like you have never been woken up before. I went to bed that evening at the time that I told the SLEEPTRACKER that I would be in bed by. During the night, my baby woke up crying, which in turn woke me up. I remember getting up at about 2:10 AM to calm him down and get him back to sleep. In the morning, I heard the alarm go off. I checked the watch, and it was 5:47 AM. Oh, and yes – I felt perfectly awake and satisfied with the amount of sleep I got. I didn’t feel the need to hit a snooze button of any sort.
After I got up, and did the toothbrush thing, I checked the sleep data. It was very interesting to see the times that the SLEEPTRACKER had recognized as my light sleep/awake moments. Most intriguing though, was that it marked 2:11 AM as one of those moments – right after my son woke up crying!
The truth is, I have been testing this watch for about a week now, and there was just one morning that I was not awakened by it. It was a morning that I simply stayed up way too late to even hear the alarm. That is the thing though. The alarm is not loud – it is audible only because it usually goes off when you are in a light sleep mode. If it doesn’t recognize an optimal time within your window, then it just goes off at your designated alarm time. If you are too tired at that point, that is your problem.
This product really was a pleasant surprise. Most of the things we review at Gear Live are gadgets with interesting or fun gimmicks that make them must-haves or horrible failures. The thing about the SLEEPTRACKER is that it doesn’t provide anything “fun” or “cool” per se. Instead, they have developed a product that actually improves your quality of life. Waking up fully energized on a daily basis is just amazing. It is almost as if there is no lost time, and you just want to seize the day. The product did exactly what it said it would do, and because of that, it gets our highest honor. This one comes very highly recommended.
Specifications
· Customized ALARM Window
· Customized ALARM
· Record, Store, Review Your Sleep Data
· “TO BED” Feature
· Easy To Set
· Works Like A Watch, Too
· Water-Resistant
http://www.gearlive.com/index.php/news/article/sleeptracker-watch-review-03221147/

Best way to wake up

2008-08-22T18:53:00.001-07:00

Alarm clocks are bad. How to wake up and feel better.
Waking up abruptly by the sound of an alarm clock is an inherently unnatural thing to do. Sometimes you can wake up after 8 hours and feel like crap. Other times, you can wake up after 6 hours and feel completely rested. The problem lies in what you're doing when you're suddenly woken up from your slumber.I use a very simple, safe, and free (as in beer) system that I think works quite well and is more natural than suddenly waking up to a buzzer. I don't drink coffee. I don't drink soda/pop/cola (regularly). I don't need to use any sort of caffeine to stay awake. Disclaimer: I am not a doctor (yet) and while I'm an expert, it's not in sleep. What I can say is that this has worked for me for the past 7 years and throughout university.Sleep is not just a single thing that happens to you at night. There are 5 stages of sleep and over the course of a night's sleep, you cycle through these stages, with each sleep cycle taking approximately 90 minutes. Stages 1 and 2 are considered "light" sleep, while stages 3 and 4 are "deep" sleep. The 5th stage is REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is when you dream. When you wake up during "light" sleep, you wake up rested and feeling good. Conversely, when you wake up during "deep" sleep, you feel groggy and are more tempted to hit the snooze button.The traditional alarm clock has a set time to wake you up, but you could be in any stage of sleep when that happens. Nature did not intend for us to wake up during "deep" sleep.This guy claims to sleep in 90 minute intervals to attempt to wake up during "light" sleep. The problem with this is that 90 minutes is not a hard cut rule – every person's sleep cycle is different. Further, it's not like a person's sleep cycle is constant – it varies in length through the night and is affected by things like exercise, alcohol, and drugs. Even more, there's no guarantee that you'll fall asleep right away, so it's hard to set the alarm to wake you up in multiples of 90 minutes from when you think you'll fall asleep. Plus, if you wake up during the middle of the night, that'll kill this system. The end result is that you can still be woken up during "deep" sleep.There are commercial products that attempt to measure your EEG and wake you up during "light" sleep. One product that I've seen, SleepSmart, makes you wear a headband or something around your head while you sleep. SleepTracker is a watch that claims to be able to read your brain's EEG from your wrist. The downside of course, is that they're expensive, you have to wear them (so they can be lost or fall off at night and of course, you will be laughed at by your friends and loved ones), and worst of all, if they measure incorrectly, you can be woken up at the wrong time.I use a very simple system that can be done by even the most frugal of people. I can't remember when I first started doing this, but it's been at least 7 years. Here's what you do:

Set an alarm to go off before the latest time you want to wake up.
Make the alarm really quiet radio or music.

Set a second alarm to go off at the latest time you want to wake up.
This is your regular alarm that will wake you up no matter what.
The whole point is that the first alarm should be so quiet that it will only wake you up if you're in "light" sleep, like a whisper in your ear. Waking up in "light" sleep should leave you feeling more refreshed than waking up in "deep" sleep. The second alarm is the back up to make sure that you wake up in time :).You can use two alarm clocks to accomplish this. I personally use a dual alarm clock that lets me do this easily (I didn't buy the alarm clock to do this, it just so happened that I had this alarm clock when I created this system or the alarm clock led me to create this). My alarm clock lets me set two alarms; I set the first to use the radio with the volume set low and the second alarm to buzzer. I have something that looks like this:You'll have to adjust two things in this system. The first is when to set the first alarm. You can use the 90 minute rule to estimate when you'll be in "light" sleep and set the alarm accordingly. Alternatively, you can just set the first alarm 30, 45, 60, or 90 minutes early and hope that you're in "light" sleep during that time. The second thing you need to adjust is the alarm itself. You want it loud enough to wake you up during "light" sleep, but not so that it'll wake you up during "deep" sleep.This is an easy to implement system that doesn't require you to drastically change your lifestyle, but can improve how you feel when you wake up and throughout the rest of the day. This is in contrast to some of the more drastic things out there that may actually be harmful to you.My favourite is what I like to call, the "Wolf Sleep System". In his book, "Never Cry Wolf", Farley Mowat wrote that he was using a strange system that he swore by in which he tried to mimic the sleeping patterns of wolves. He would sleep for a short period of time, something like 15 minutes, then he would get up and crawl around on all fours in a little circle, and then go back to sleep for 15 min. and repeat. He claims that he had a girl in his bed once that was not pleased with his sleeping pattern and he gave up the girl rather than his sleeping system. I tried this system long ago, but didn't make it through the night. I did it maybe 2 or 3 times, but then I was like, screw this and didn't wake up until morning.There's been a lot of buzz recently about polyphasic sleep, where you attempt to sleep less by spreading out sleep throughout the day with short naps. There have also been some warnings that this may be unhealthy and that it can reduce your ability to stay awake for prolonged periods of time, i.e. you'll need an emergency nap every couple hours.I figure that my system can't be worse than just regularly using an alarm clock and doesn't require much effort on your part. It's worth a shot and if it helps you, more power to you.

http://veenix.blogspot.com/2005/10/alarm-clocks-are-bad-how-to-wake-up.html
I recently had a client ask me about ways, other than caffeine, to really get the wheels turning in the morning. based on that idea, here are some ways to feel your best and perform your best without any artificial stimulants.
1. Create a night time routine that prepares you for the following day. By taking care of the little details, such as showering, clothes, and meal planning, you will be able to get a more rested night sleep and awake prepared to start you day
2. Try to vary your bed time and wake up time on seasonal light schedules. They body is chemically designed to wake up when light begins to enter though the eye lids. By waking up artificially from an alarm, the bodies "wake up chemicals" have yet to be released and your metabolism is still slow.
3. If you haven't showered the night before a hot shower followed by about 1 minute of cooler/cold water, really stimulates the metabolism to get fired up.
4. Light to moderate exercise, such as walking or jogging for 20 minutes to an hour, is the perfect way to jump start your metabolism for the day. It is proven that those individuals who exercise in the morning are 30 to 70 percent more productive throughout the day.
5. If you are not a morning exerciser, try some light movement based meditation. Often times some light yoga or Ti-Chi will gradually get the blood flowing to working muscles and stimulate a gradually increase in metabolic activity.
6. Give your body a chance to wake up before you take in any food. Since blood flow to the digestive system is slowed during sleep, we need to give our organs a chance to wake up before we ask it to work. Minimally 30 minutes, optimally 1 hour after you wake up, you should take in some food. Before that hour a couple of glasses of water is the perfect way to curb the hunger.
7. Finally, in the morning you definitely need to "break the fast". I'll post some healthy breakfast options with in the next couple of days!
Remember Waking up is a process. Be reasonable with your expectations. Give your self some time to wake up in the morning and I guarantee you will feel better and more energized through out your day.
http://blog.kalamazooathleticclub.com/2008/06/20/bette-way-to-wake-up.aspx

Best way to help sleep

2008-08-22T18:52:00.000-07:00

1. Never oversleep
Never oversleep because of a poor night's sleep. This is the most crucial rule. Get up at about the same time every day, especially on the morning after you've lost sleep. Sleeping late for just a couple of days can reset your body clock to a different cycle -- you'll be getting sleepy later and waking up later.
2. Set your body clock
Light helps restart your body clock to its active daytime phase. So when you get up, go outside and get some sunlight. Or if that's difficult, turn on all the lights in your room.Then walk around for a few minutes. The calves of your legs act as pumps and get blood circulating, carrying more oxygen to your brain to help get you going.
3. Exercise
Keep physically active during the day. This is especially important the day after a bad night's sleep. When you sleep less, you should be more active during the day. Being less active is one of the worst things an insomniac can do.Strenuous exercise (brisk walking, swimming, jogging, squash, etc.) in late afternoon seems to promote more restful sleep. Also, insomniacs tend to be too inactive a couple of hours before bed. Do some gentle exercise. A stretching routine has helped many people.
4. Don't nap
Do not take any naps the day after you've lost sleep. When you feel sleepy, get up and do something. Walk, make the bed, or do your errands. While studying, get up regularly (every 30 minutes, or more often if necessary) to walk around your room. Do a gentle stretch. That will increase the flow of oxygen to your brain and help you to be more alert.
5. Set a bedtime schedule using these two steps:
First, try to go to bed at about the same time every night. Be regular. Most people get hungry at 7 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. because they've eaten at those times for years. Going to bed at about the same time every night can make sleep as regular as hunger.
Second, go to bed later when you are having trouble sleeping. If you're only getting five hours of sleep a night during your insomnia period, don't go to bed until just five hours before your wake-up time. For instance, if you've been waking up at 7 a.m., don't go to bed until 2 a.m. No naps! Make the time you spend in bed sleep time. Still some insomnia? Go to bed proportionately later. Then, as your time in bed becomes good sleep time, move your going-to-bed time back 15 to 30 minutes a night and do that for a week or so.This is the opposite of what we want to do: we want to go to bed earlier to make up the lost sleep. Learn to do what many sleep laboratories teach -- go to bed later the night after losing sleep.
Develop a bedtime routine
Stop studying and don't get into any stimulating discussions or activities a half hour or hour before bed. Do something that's relaxing -- read "light" material, play your guitar, listen to music that is quiet, catch a mindless TV show. Some people sleep better in a clean and neat environment, so they like to straighten and clean their room just before going to bed. Find your own sleep-promoting routine.

Warm bath, yes; shower, no
Take a long, hot bath before going to bed. This helps relax and soothe your muscles. Showers, on the other hand, tend to wake you up. Insomniacs should avoid showers in the evening.

List "gotta do's"
Keep a pad and pencil handy. If you think of something you want to remember, jot it down. Then let the thought go. There will be no need to lie awake worrying about remembering it.

Stretch and relaxation
Some people find that a gentle stretching routine for several minutes just before getting into bed helps induce sleep. Others practice relaxation techniques. Libraries or bookstores have books on developing stretching or relaxation routines. The University Counseling Services has some material on both: try
Stressed Out Over Studying?"The Doctor told me that stress caused my..."

To eat or not to eat
Some sleep centers recommend a light breakfast and lunch to help you stay alert during the day. They advise you to make the evening meal the major meal of the day. Schedule it at least four hours before bedtime so your digestive system will be reasonably quiet by the time you're ready to sleep.

Warm milk?
It helps some people to have a glass at bedtime. Milk has an essential amino acid, tryptophan, which stimulates the brain chemical serotonin, believed to play a key role in inducing sleep. A piece of whole wheat bread, or another carbohydrate, enhances the effect. Or try taking tryptophan, beginning with about two grams about an hour before bedtime. A piece of wheat bread will help the tryptophan to be absorbed.

Avoid caffeine and tyrosine-rich foods from late afternoon on
Caffeine, a chemical in coffee, colas, tea, chocolate, etc., causes hyperactivity and wakefulness. Some sleep laboratories encourage people to avoid such tyrosine-laden foods as fermented cheeses (cheddar is about the worst; cottage cheese and yogurt are OK), ripe avocados, some imported beers, and fermented meats (bologna, pepperoni, salami). Also avoid red wines, especially chianti.

Cut down on alcohol
Alcohol might help you get to sleep, but it results in shallow and disturbed sleep, abnormal dream periods, and frequent early morning awakening.

Sleeping pills
Reasons to avoid sleeping pills include disturbed sleep patterns, short-term amnesia, and impaired motor skills. Research shows that benzodiazepine hypnotics, the most commonly prescribed sleeping pills, impair short-term memory, reaction time, thinking, and visual-motor coordination (such as driving).

Room temperature
Sleep in a cool room (60 degrees or so). Pile on another blanket or add one under the mattress pad rather than turn up the heat. A physician I know used this principle while in medical school; he kept an air conditioner on in his room all year. He said it helped him sleep better so that he needed less sleep. You don't need to go to such extremes, but do keep it cool.

Humidity
Even a little thing like a dry throat may make sleeping more difficult. Most heating systems dry the air in your bedroom, so borrow a humidifier to see if it will help. Keeping heat down and having a window open can also keep humidity up.

Noise
Some people seem to sleep better if there is a white noise -- a fan running, for example -- in the background. For others, noise can interrupt sleep.
In addition to the fan strategy, try particular kinds of music to blot out the noise. Play a recording of music that has no words, no definite melody, and not a lot of change in the volume. Baroque music is a good choice. There are many tapes of sounds that aid sleep by quieting the mind, emotions, and body. Check at the counseling center, at a mental health center, or holistic health center.
If desperate, you might try ear plugs that workers use on noisy jobs. If you use cotton, be sure to use balls large enough that they won't work down into your ear canal and have to be removed by a physician.
Worrying about insomnia
Focusing on insomnia might make it worse. After all, you won't die from it! It is frequently a symptom of something else excessive worry or anxiety about grades, money, relationships, etc. If you think a particular worry might be keeping you awake, get up, find paper and a pencil, and jot down something you can do about that worry tomorrow. Put the note where you'll see it when you wake up. You can set aside your worry and use the remainder of the night for restful sleep. If necessary, use the strategies already described to get back into a regular sleep pattern.

In bed and unable to sleep?If you are in bed and unable to sleep, many experts suggest getting completely out of bed, sitting in a chair, and reading, writing letters, or doing some quiet activity. As you get sleepy, go back to bed and use a relaxation technique to fall asleep. Make your bed a place to sleep, not a place to get other things done.Don't get mad at yourself! Try not to worry about not sleeping. Your body's wisdom will take over and you'll begin sleeping regularly as long as you use the five basic strategies described earlier.

Exercising?The role of exercise cannot be stressed enough! Adding regular exercise -- brisk walking, riding an exercycle (perhaps while watching TV), swimming -- has helped many people sleep better. The more active your body is during the day, the more likely it is that you'll be able to go to sleep when it's time for your body to be quiet. Quiet time for sleep needs to be a contrast to a more active day.

Waking up at night?What should you do when you're awake after just two, three, or four hours of sleep? Do not drink, eat, or smoke when you wake up. If you do, you'll find yourself waking up for them after just three or four nights of such treats.
Do get out of bed, read, write letters, or do some quiet activity. Reactions to the stresses of everyday life can result in a level of sleep that is easily interrupted. A good stress-management program can help. Contact your counseling service for such a program.

Awake 4 or 5 a.m? Now what?Get up and begin the day. If you're rested, you've probably had enough sleep and have a head start on most people. If you're still tired, get up anyway and go through the day, avoiding naps. Start the routines suggested in the basic strategies.Build an exercise program and stress-management training into your life. By learning to be less stressed during the day, you also learn to sleep better at night.

Not managing stress very well?Difficulty in effectively managing normal, everyday stress in life is a common problem. A frequent reaction to daily stresses is insomnia, either sleep-onset insomnia or sleep-interrupting insomnia. A good stress-management program helps you learn how to manage those frequent stressors and go more easily through each day. Check out our Biofeedback Training Center for some information. You can also find out about stress-management programs from your local guidance and mental health centers, extension agencies, and family physicians. More and more hospitals are offering such programs to help people develop healthier lifestyles.
How Much Sleep Do you need?
Sleep needs vary from person to person. Some need only four hours per night, but others seem to need 10.
Some people complain because they sleep "only" five or six hours each night. Yet many of these people awake rested in the morning and function well during the day. Five or six hours of sleep is all they need most of the time. They don't have insomnia.
Other people feel tired after eight hours of sleep. They need more than the "normal" seven to eight hour average. Just one more hour of sleep often gives these people the rest they need.
Experiment to find the amount of sleep you need.
Remember, too, that the amount of sleep you need will vary. Your need for sleep may decrease and your ability to go to sleep may improve when you are exercising regularly and doing things you enjoy and do easily. You may need more sleep and experience more sleeplessness if you are under more stress or as you become less active (e.g., move from an active to a sedentary job, return to the more sedentary role of student after an active summer).

Music helps older people sleep
Posted by David Pescovitz, April 7, 2005 9:20 AM permalink
A new scientific study suggests that older people who have sleep difficulties snooze much better after listening to 45 minutes of quiet music before bed. Researchers studied the sleep patterns of sixty individuals aged 60-83 in Taiwan who had problems sleeping. Compared to the control group, "the 30 who had listened to carefully selected music experienced physical changes that aided restful sleep. These included lower heart and respiratory rates." From the press release:
The music group was able to choose from six tapes that featured soft, slow music. These included one tape of Chinese folk music and five that had been found effective for reducing postoperative pain in research conducted by (Case Western Resever University nursing professor Marion) Good.Good, one of the country's leading researchers of drug-free methods to reduce postoperative pain, has found in previous studies that the combination of relaxation and music relieved postoperative abdominal pain significantly more than painkillers.
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/04/07/music-helps-older-pe.html

Does rain help people sleep?
Not directly, some people think the sound of rain falling is relaxing, and it soothes them to sleep. There is also some evidence that the ionization caused by the falling water helps relax the body. The cold weather when its raining is what drives people to sleep..primarily because its so good to sleep when its cold.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_rain_help_people_sleep
Music helps people sleep - study
As adult get older, sleep can become a problem. Many may find that they are sleeping less, while some will have trouble falling asleep. However a new study has found that listening to soft music at bedtime may help older people to sleep better and for longer.
A team of researchers followed the progress of 60 people with sleep difficulties. All were aged 60 - 83. The participants were split into two groups; a music group and a control group.
The sleep quality of the music group was measured before they started listening to music and then over a three-week period, when soft, slow music was played to them at bedtime. The sleep quality of the control group was also measured.
The participants in the music group were allowed to pick from one of six music tapes. Anyone taking sleep medication or taking part in relaxation techniques, such as meditation, was excluded from the study.
The researchers found that the difference between the two groups was 'clinically significant'. In fact, the music group reported a 26% overall improvement in their sleep during the first week of the study and this figure rose during the following two weeks.
By the end of the study period, those listening to 45 minutes of soft music at bedtime were reporting a 35% improvement in their sleep, compared to the control group.
Overall those in the music group slept for longer and had better sleep, compared to those in the control group. The study found that those who had listened to music had actually experienced physical changes that are known to aid restful sleep, including a lower heart rate and a lower respiratory rate.
"Music is pleasant and safe and the technique we used in our study is quick, easy to learn and is low cost. It is easy to use and does not cause side effects", the researchers said.
Details of this study are published in The Journal of Advanced Nursing.
http://www.irishhealth.com/index.html?level=4&id=7283

Internet, Aerobic Exercise May Help People with Insomnia
Two studies being presented as poster presentations this morning at SLEEP 2008 offer hope to those who suffer from insomnia.A study (ID# 0716) of 44 participants shows that a self-help program delivered via the Internet can significantly improve insomnia in adults. Individuals in the study group had an average age of 45 years, and 77 percent were women.Participants reported having an average of five nights per week of sleep difficulties for about 10 years. The study involved a six-week, structured, interactive, self-guided, and tailored intervention that took traditional face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy and transformed it for delivery via the Internet.Results show that sleep improved significantly over the six-week period. Sleep efficiency (i.e., the percentage of time in bed spent sleeping) improved from 66 percent to 88 percent. The average nightly total sleep time of the participants increased by 80 minutes.Another study (ID# 0737) of 36 adults with chronic primary insomnia suggests that moderate aerobic exercise can help people with insomnia get some sleep.The study involved 28 women and 8 men with an average age of 44 years. Results show that a 50-minute session of moderate aerobic exercise on a treadmill improved numerous measures of sleep quality. It decreased sleep onset latency (i.e., the amount of time it takes to fall asleep) by 54 percent and decreased wake time in bed by 36 percent after the exercise session.The session of moderate aerobic exercise, which began at 6 p.m., also increased total sleep time by 21 percent and increased sleep efficiency by 18 percent.Similar results were not achieved with either heavy aerobic exercise or moderate strength exercise. Heavy aerobic exercise involved three periods of 10 minutes of exercise on a treadmill alternating with 10 minutes of rest. Strength exercise lasted about 50 minutes and involved: shoulder press, chest press, vertical traction, leg press, leg curl, leg extension, abdominal crunch and lower back.
http://sleepmeeting.blogspot.com/2008/06/internet-aerobic-exercise-may-help.html

Insomnia: Changing your bedtime habits could help relieve insomnia
Many people sleep better when they are on holiday and wish that they could sleep as well all the time. But according to the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), it is not only being free of daily worries that can make a difference to sleep. Good bedtime habits can help people to sleep well all year round. Medication provides short-term relief at best.
In information published www.informedhealthonline.orgay on the Institute reports about what bedtime habits could help, how well relaxation techniques work, how sleep changes throughout life and that adults do not generally need eight hours sleep a night. Sleep medication is used less nowadays About 1 out of every 5 adults in industrial countries have problems sleeping at some point in their lives. In order to provide reliable information on this issue, the Institute analysed scientific studies that cover a wide range of research on sleep and insomnia. Sleeping pills - whether herbal or prescription - are being used less than they used to be in countries like Germany. Although products based on herbs like valerian have long been used, the evidence from trials testing their efficacy is far from convincing. "Prescription sleeping pills can be important in certain situations, but they can cause a lot of adverse effects and are not a long-term solution. For older people, sleep medication can increase the risk of falling, as well as interfering with other medicines," warns the Institute's Director, Professor Peter Sawicki. "Sleeping pills are not the best way to solve underlying problems like depression or painful conditions that are interfering with a good night's sleep." The habits that can help people get a better night's sleep Trials have shown that many people could get to sleep a little sooner if they learned relaxation techniques to help them "switch off" when it is time to go to sleep.
Research suggests that a combination of certain habits can help people sleep better. This includes only going to bed when you are tired and ready to go to sleep. Reading and watching TV in bed could actually make it harder to sleep. If people cannot sleep, it is better for them to get out of bed and do something else rather than focusing on trying to sleep. Getting up at the same time every morning can help too. Napping during the day might make it harder for you to sleep at night if you are struggling with chronic insomnia. It is also important to avoid drinking caffeinated drinks and alcohol in the evening. "Most people know that coffee, cola or black tea can interfere with their sleep," says Professor Sawicki . "But many do not realise that alcohol is one of the major causes of a bad night's sleep." Eight hours a night may not be necessary for everyone The Institute also looked at research on what is a normal night's sleep. Studies have shown that as we get older, we actually need less sleep on average. While children and teenagers generally need eight or more hours sleep a night, by the time people are 40, they usually only need seven hours a night. Source: Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care
http://www.physorg.com/news138535740.html

Sleep is a Luxury

2008-08-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

Many people feel that sleep is a waste of time. They have busy lives with work and families so they try to squeeze every minute out of every day. They finally surrender to sleep when they are absolutely exhausted. . . article discusses how this effects our bodies over time.
Many people feel that sleep is a waste of time. They have busy lives with work and families so they try to squeeze every minute out of every day. They finally surrender to sleep when they are absolutely exhausted. The problem they are not recognizing is that when you are sleep deprived, you are forcing your body to work at a disadvantage. An exhausted body cannot work to it’s full potential, mentally or physically.
Sleep studies around the world have shown that the lack of sleep affects your physical, mental, and emotional life. A study at the University of Wisconsin showed that sleep deprivation can cause a number of health problems such as depression, heart problems, and alertness while performing important tasks such as driving.. Another sleep test reported by the magazine “Science News” reported that when 48 volunteers were deprived of sleep for a period of two weeks, it reduced their mental abilities. This included alertness, reaction time, and memory.
Sleep is natures way of allowing our bodies to rejuvenate. There are two stages of sleep. REM (rapid eye movement) and non-REM. During REM sleep the body is able to experience complete muscle relaxation, this allows us to wake up feeling physically refreshed. REM sleep is also the time when our blood pressure and heart rate lower, and the time when our brain secretes a hormone called cortisol. Without cortisol our bodies will not have the sufficient means to combat circulatory diseases. This REM sleep is also when the circulatory system rests and this helps to avoid cardiovascular disease.
Sleep is also the time when our bodies combat and metabolize free radicals. Free radicals are the molecules that are said to increase the aging process and even cause cancer. Sleep deprivation is also linked to the lack of production of white blood cells. We all know that we need these to fight infection.
Sleep can seriously affect our appetite. Our brain interprets lack of sleep as hunger. While we sleep our bodies secrete a hormone called leptin. Leptin is what tells our brain that we are full when we eat. When we are awake for longer periods of time our bodies do not have the opportunity to produce leptin. This, in turn, causes us to feel hungry and crave carbohydrates. Thus, sleep deprivation can easily lead to another health problem, obesity.
Sleep deprivation is not just a problem here in the United States. In Portugal three out of four people report that they go to bed after midnight and still get up early and go to work. The Japanese seem to sleep the least, over forty percent report that they get six hours of sleep or less. In fact, a report on sleep deprivation from Japan reported that tests done on those who only got four to five and a half hours of sleep each night did poorly on tests that measured memory, clear thinking, and the ability to pay attention. The Australians, on the other hand, are in bed around ten o’clock and get around nine hours of sleep each night. I think they have the right idea.
http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/1544/1/Sleep---Luxury-or-Necessity.html

The economics of sleep
Economists term “luxury good” as one for which demand increases faster than the rare of increase in income. An “inferior good” is one where a typical consumer’s demand actually decreases with rising income. (For a “normal good” demand and income are proportional.)
Economics is the study of resource allocation under the condition of scarcity, and for many people, the scare resource is time. Either consciously or unconsciously, people make decisions about how to allocate their time, including time in bed and time working. A familiar chart on the walls of university students says “Sleep, work, play: pick two”.
There’s no question that sleep disorders are a drag on the economy when it comes to lost productivity, work time, medical expenses, and bad moods.
A study of people from 12 countries found that for each one-hour increase in “market work” (as opposed to, say, unpaid housework), sleep time was reduced by 10 minutes.
The number of hours the average person sleeps has declined over the past century, and while much of this is due to electrification of homes (with lights and televisions, etc), it is reasonable to think that part of it is due to the expansion of the market economy and specialization of labor.
Differences between demographic groups

A study in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 2006 showed that wealthier people on average have lower sleep latency than poor people. They were more efficient sleepers, spending a greater portion of their time in bed asleep. Of course, these are averages and there is quite a bit of variation within groups.
Sleep efficiency also differed between men and women and between black and white people
Sleep
All
White women
White men
Black women
Black men
Time in bed
7.51
7.84
7.34
7.55
7.10
Sleep latency (minutes)
22.33
13.30
18.52
28.36
35.93
Sleep duration (hours)
6.13
6.71
6.09
5.90
5.10
Sleep efficiency
80.8%
85.7%
82.4%
78.2%
73.2%

(The above table from the University of Chicago website.)
Low socioeconomic status is associated with poor health, and a recent study showed that pediatric sleep apnea is more common in poor neighborhood. University of Chicago researchers also found that higher income people tend to sleep more than lower income people.
Another study by Case Western Reserve University showed that low socioeconomic status is associated with “long sleep” (excessive sleep) and early mortality. (Separately it is known there is a connection between long sleep and early mortality.) Nobody knows the exact connection.
A report by the National Bureau of Economic Research stated that economists found that higher employment (and lower unemployment) is correlated with an increase in heart disease. "A single percentage point reduction in unemployment increases predicted deaths from heart attack by about 1.3 percent." Sleep deprivation was listed as a possible cause.
There was an unusual study out of John F. Kennedy University which looked at the sleep and dream patterns of Americans to see if there was a difference between liberals and conservatives. The author concluded that conservatives slept more soundly and had fewer remembered dreams than liberals. There were only 234 people studied and this sounds a little difficult to believe.
"Dawn comes soon enough for the working class" - Exene Cervanka and John Doe
http://www.sleepdex.org/economics.htm

To some people, sleep is a waste of time. This set of people prefers very busy schedule and social engagements, and only surrender to sleep when extremely tired. In contrast, others would give anything for a good night sleep. Researchers have established that sleep is a complex process regulated by the brain and it obeys a 24-hour biological clock. They also assert that some adults appear to need only three hours of sleep a day; others need up to ten hours. As one gets older, the sleeping habits changes. A newborn sleeps for frequent short periods that total about 18 hours a day. The biological clock is regulated by chemical substances such as melatonin – a hormone that trigger sleepiness. Melatonin is produced in the brain, and some scientists believe that it is responsible for the slowdown of the body’s metabolism that occurs prior to falling asleep. As melatonin is released, body temperature and blood flow to the brain are reduced, and the muscles gradually loose their tone ad become flaccid. Approximately two hours after one falls asleep, the eyes begin to quiver quickly back and forth. This observation led scientists to divide sleep into 2 basic phases: rem (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep and non-REM sleep. Non-REM sleep can be sub-divided into four stage of progressively deeper sleep. During a healthy night’s sleep, REM sleep occurs several times, alternating with non-REM sleep. Most dreaming occurs during REM sleep. The body also experiences maximum muscle relaxation, which allows the sleeper to wake up feeling physically refreshed. In addition, some researchers believe that newly acquired information is consolidated as part of one’s long-term memory during this sleep. Also, during deep sleep, the blood pressure and heart rate reach lower ranges providing rest for the circulatory system. In addition, the production of growth hormone peaks during non-REM sleep. Sleep also seems to affect one’s appetite. The brain interprets lack of sleep as lack of food. During sleep, leptin – the hormone that notify the body that one has eaten enough – is secreted. Staying awake for a long period leads to reduction in the production of leptin. Today, millions of people have difficulty sleeping well. Sleep specialists posit that an estimated 35 percent of the world’s population suffer from insomnia – the inability to enjoy normal and sufficient sleep. They assert described sleeping badly as “one of the most serious epidemics of the turn of the century.” Many insomniacs suffer in ignorance. They simply accept sleeping badly as part of life and resign themselves to spending their waking hours feeling irritated and drowsy. To these, sleep is neither a luxury nor a necessity.

http://www.shvoong.com/medicine-and-health/1732578-sleep-luxury-necessity/

Philips Lamp/Alarm clock

2008-08-22T18:49:00.000-07:00

The new Wake-Up alarm clock from Philips has some very bold claims about improving not only your quality of sleep, but your "quality of wakening". If you're the type that hits the snooze button endlessly until finally shrugging off the duvet when your snooze allowance is up, then this clock promises a more natural way to get you out of bed. Not a new concept, but following the theory that nature intended us to be woken by gently increasing sunlight, the Wake-Up Light emits just that - light that gets gradually brighter simulating the sun rising in your bedroom. Here comes the science: as the light falls on your eyes, a message is sent to your brain that positively affects the production of cortisol, the energy hormone. This apparently means that at your required wake-up time your hormones are better balanced and you’ll feel more energetic right from the start of the day. Philips researched this product and found that 87% of us regularly hit the snooze button but in trials, only 20% of users of the Philips Wake-Up Light continued to use the snooze button. The Philips Wake-Up Light is available from Argos and Boots from September for £100.
http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/8836/9860/Philips-launches-Wake-Up-Light-alarmclock.phtml

Philips Wake-Up Light Alarm Clock: Fade Up to Harsh Reality
You may still be reeling from that jarring alarm that scared you out of bed this morning, so here's a concept from Philips that could change all that, an alarm clock with a soft light that fades up over a half an hour. You can adjust its ultimate brightness, and we're assuming there's some kind of alarm at the end of that cycle, just to make sure you're awake.
Philips says this simulates a natural wakeup with the sunrise, when sunlight gradually begins to peek through your closed eyelids. That sends signals to your brain to stop producing melatonin, that sleep-inducing hormone that sometimes seems to kick in at the most inopportune times. The clock will be available in France this month, and everywhere else in 2007.
This is not the first time we've seen this idea; the Progressive Wakeup Alarm Clock you've seen here on the Giz does basically the same thing with light, aromatherapy and sound effects. Both clocks sound good to me, one who's always looking for the best way to gradually make that transition from sweet slumber to harsh reality. – Charlie White
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/philips-wakeup-light-alarm-clock-fade-up-to-harsh-reality-205415.php

Update on the Philips HF3461 Wake-Up Light Alarm Clock
Published by neil on December 15th, 2007
It has been two weeks now since first using the Philips HF3461 Wake-Up Light Alarm Clock mentioned in this recent post, so I thought I would post a quick update.
So far, this device has changed my life.
Still waking with relative ease at 6-6.30 am each morning - including weekends. I’m coherent and productive within an hour of waking, much less sleepy during the day, and noticeably less drowsy in the early afternoon - I used to really struggle around 3pm each day. I get more stuff done.
I had to double check myself, however, as midweek this week I realised I was slipping into a self-imposed wakeup routine: I would be partly awake just before the audio part of the alarm kicked in and when it did, I would immediately press snooze. Twelve minutes of almost returning to sleep before the birds started singing once again, and it was tougher to drag myself out of bed. Bad boy. Always amazes me the way in which our brains encourage us to stumble into routine. So the lesson is, the dawn simulation most certainly works, but you still have to take responsibility and get up. I suppose it’s similar to those Kellogg’s Special-K ads which help you lose wait but only as part of a balanced, calorie controlled diet. Or not. It’s still down to you to make the most of it.
If you struggle to get out of bed in the morning, I wholeheartedly recommend a dawn simulator alarm.
http://neildixon.com/update-on-the-philips-hf3461-wake-up-light-alarm-clock/

With a recommended price of around £100, this has to be one of the most expensive alarm clocks we’ve ever seen.It’s also unique in that it looks a little like a giant upturned tooth. There’s a reason for this strange (and not particularly attractive) design, though: the white plastic shell contains an extremely bright light. The idea is that, rather than shocking you from your slumbers with a piercing noise, the Wake-up Light rouses you gently with a slow artificial sunrise.Being sceptical types, we also chose to also set an audible alarm to sound at the end of this sunrise – the HF3461 gives a choice of a traditional bleep, an FM radio station or an assortment of rather silly sounding nature noises. On the first morning, however, we found ourselves wide awake a good ten minutes before usual.And, although these things are hard to measure, we didn’t feel as grumpy and cloth-headed as usual. We had a few complaints. For one, several buttons are located on the top of the device – this makes them hard to find without actually getting up and looking down at the clock. Also, at one point our test unit stopped working and had to be unplugged for several hours to reset itself.Nonetheless, we’d recommend the Wake-up Light to anyone who doesn’t feel properly alive in the mornings.

http://techtaxi.blogspot.com/2008/04/philips-wake-up-light-hf3461-review.html

The Wake-Up Light Alarm Clock from the Philips is an awesome gadget and this is a must in every household. My uncle gifted me this when I was moving to college hostel during the final year of graduation and this has helped me a lot to wake up in time. I would highly recommend this alarm clock to all the students who are eager to wake up in the morning to study but for some reason cannot materialize it. Not just for students, it is a blessing for working housewife who needs to get up early in the morning to do chores and all the office goers who are late to wake up. Philips has revolutionized the concept of the alarm bells and it is really a practical innovation that should be applauded. There is no rocket science involved in this and I am just wondering why none thought about it earlier. It works on a very simple concept and is a user friendly alarm clock with no technical complexities. Basically this comes with an incandescent lamp and all you have to do is to preset the time and light and intensity before going to bed. Most of you would be wondering the role of light and that is what makes the Philips HF3461 Wake-Up Light Alarm Clock unique and different from other alarm clocks. It is not just the sound but also the light that wakes you up and this couple effect is reliable. This is based on the principle that energy hormone, cortisol should be activated to wake up without any fuss. We are not aware of the fact that it is not that we are purposefully lazy to wake up after hearing the bell go, but the brain the energy hormone is not triggered. So the Philips bulb glows along with the bell and recreate the effect of sunlight to brightly light the room just like a sunny day outside and this makes you wake up.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/739609/a_review_of_philips_hf3461_wakeup_light.html

Abstract

2008-08-06T16:23:00.001-07:00

So far......

SLEEP
Tania, Jeremy, Peter

Intimacy
what/how/who?

Aim: To design a product that will optimise the rejuvenating properties of sleep.

Scope: Sleeping cycle, physical elements involved with sleep (bed, pillow, etc), previous research, relevant products, experience.

Conclusion: Preliminary research shows that by changing/adjusting sleep habits we can greatly improve quality of sleep and therefore quality of day.

ABSTRACT:

Sleep is an intimate part of life; it is a daily ritual and a very personal experience, from our preparation to our dreams to our waking, our sleep is designed to prepare us for the day ahead, unfortunately some people are not very good designers. In today’s fast paced world, sleep seems a luxury, not a need but when you get the best out of your sleep, you get the best out of your day and your quality of life improves drastically. If we deprive ourselves of sleep, we disrupt our very delicate sleep cycles and our body clocks begin to tick to the wrong beat. Through implementing a system of sleep cycle prediction, our product aims to enhance this daily productivity, whether short or long it will provide you with the highest quality of sleep possible within that given time; helping those who struggle with their sleep wake up feeling rejuvenated and ready for their waking day.

Keywords: Sleep, sleep cycle, rejuvenation, quality, productivity

Cycles/Phases

2008-08-01T21:42:00.000-07:00

Sleep Phases

2008-08-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

When we deprive ourselves of sleep, there is a delicate cycle that we disrupt. Let me now share with you that cycle:

Phase One: Phase one begins as soon as the sun sets, when the pineal gland starts to release melatonin, a hormone released in the absence of light and responsible for making us sleepy. When you lay down in your bed at this time, your muscles relax, heart rate and breathing slow down, and body temperature drops. The brain also relaxes but still remains alert. If you could look at the wave patterns being generated by the brain, you would see a change from the rapid beta waves of daytime to slower alpha waves. When the alpha waves disappear, replaced by theta waves, the sleeper has tumbled into the sensory void called stage one sleep. In this stage, the sleeper is unable to sense anything.

Phase Two: Phase two occurs a moment after phase one and in this stage the sleeper lays still for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Phase Three: After Phase two is over, the sleeper falls into a deeper sleep. During this stage, the sleeper falls deeper into phase three which lasts about 5 to 15 minutes.

Phase Four: With a maximum of 15 minutes spent within the phase three cycle, the sleeper then falls into yet another relaxed stage called phase four, lasting a half hour or so. In stage four, the eyes move back and forth very quickly in what's called rapid eye movement, or REM. This is the point at which the first dream occurs. After this dream has ended, the sleeper then goes right back to phase two and starts the whole process over again. These processes repeat themselves about five times during the night.

Sleeping Requirements
Sleep research indicates through studies that the average sleeper will sleep approximately 8 hours and fifteen minutes when uninterrupted. During this research, there were no alarm clocks or disturbing noises to interrupt normal sleep patterns. 8 hours and fifteen minutes is believed to be the ideal physiological amount of time that the body requires for proper sleep time.

http://bodybuilding.about.com/od/injurypreventiontreatment/a/sleepcycles.htm

Sleep

2008-08-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

Sleeping Well; What You Need to Know

Sleep Requirements, Needs, Cycles, and Stages

Why can’t I sleep? Why am I so tired? If you’re like half of all adults, you may not be sleeping well and not getting the right amount of sleep. Today’s fast paced society can make sleep seem like a luxury, not a need, but this is simply not true: you need quality sleep for good health. Sleep deprivation affects your entire body and mind.

Getting good, restorative sleep is not just a matter of hitting the pillow at night and waking up in the morning. Regulated by your body clock, your nighttime journey consists of sleep cycles with specific sleep stages, all vital for your body. Understanding these sleeping needs, cycles and stages can help you get better sleep.

What happens if we don’t get enough sleep?

Many of us want to sleep as little as possible. There is so much to do that sleep seems like a waste of time. Yet sleep, an essential time of rest and rejuvenation, benefits our minds and bodies in many ways. When you continuously don’t get the amount of sleep you need, you begin to pay for it in daytime drowsiness, trouble concentrating, irritability, increased risk of falls and accidents, and lower productivity.

Sleep stages: the sleep cycle

How we fall asleep

How do our bodies know when it is time to sleep? We all have an internal circadian clock that provides cues for when it is time to sleep and time to wake. This clock is sensitive to light and time of day, which is why having a good bedtime routine and a quiet dark place to sleep is so important. At the same time, a chemical messenger called adenosine builds up during the day as our bodies are busy using energy. The more adenosine builds up in the brain, the sleepier you will feel. Adenosine combined with the circadian clock sends a powerful message of sleepiness to your body.

Understanding sleep stages and the sleep cycle can help you get better sleep. Your sleep is regulated by an internal body clock, sensitive to light, time of day and other cues for sleep and awakening. When you fall asleep, your sleep goes in cycles throughout the night, moving back and forth between deep restorative sleep and more alert stages and dreaming. As the night progresses, you spend more time in dream sleep and lighter sleep.

There are two main types of sleep. REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep is when you do most active dreaming. Your eyes actually move back and forth during this stage, which is why it is called REM sleep. Non-REM (NREM) sleep consists of four stages of deeper and deeper sleep. Each sleep stage is important for overall quality sleep, but deep sleep and REM sleep are especially vital.

A typical night of sleep follows this pattern:

Sleep stages and brain activity

Why we sleep (Scientific American) provides a detailed description of brain activity during the stages of sleep and wakefulness. Includes excellent diagrams.

Stage 1 (Drowsiness) - Stage 1 lasts just five or ten minutes. Eyes move slowly under the eyelids, muscle activity slows down, and you are easily awakened.
Stage 2 (Light Sleep) - Eye movements stop, heart rate slows, and body temperature decreases.
Stages 3 & 4 (Deep Sleep) - You’re difficult to awaken, and if you are awakened, you do not adjust immediately and often feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes. Deep sleep allows the brain to go on a little vacation needed to restore the energy we expend during our waking hours. Blood flow decreases to the brain in this stage, and redirects itself towards the muscles, restoring physical energy. Research also shows that immune functions increase during deep sleep.
REM sleep (Dream Sleep) – At about 70 to 90 minutes into your sleep cycle, you enter REM sleep. You usually have three to five REM episodes per night. This stage is associated with processing emotions, retaining memories and relieving stress. Breathing is rapid, irregular and shallow, the heart rate increases, blood pressure rises, males may have penile erections, and females may have clitoral enlargement.

Importance of deep sleep and REM sleep

Deep Sleep

Each stage of sleep offers benefits to the sleeper. However, deep sleep is perhaps the most vital stage. It is the first stage that the brain attempts to recover when sleep deprived, and the strongest effects of sleep deprivation are from inadequate deep sleep. What might disrupt deep sleep? If you are caring for someone around the clock, whether it is a small infant or an elderly relative with a serious illness, you might need to attend to them suddenly in the middle of the night. Loud noise outside or inside the home might wake you. If you work the night shift, sleeping during the day may be difficult, due to light and excess noise during the day. Substances like alcohol and nicotine also disrupt deep sleep.

Maximize your deep sleep. Make sure your sleep environment is as comfortable as possible and minimize outside noise. If you are being awakened as a caregiver, make sure that you get some time of uninterrupted sleep, especially if you have had some unusually disruptive nights. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

REM sleep

REM sleep, or dream sleep, is essential to our minds for processing and consolidating emotions, memories and stress. It is also thought to be vital to learning, stimulating the brain regions used in learning and developing new skills. Most of dreaming occurs during REM sleep, although it can happen during other sleep stages as well. There are different theories as to why you dream. Freud thought that dreams were the processing of unconscious desires. Today, researchers wonder if it may be the brain’s way of processing random fragments of information received during the day. Much of dreaming is still a mystery. If REM sleep is disrupted one night, your body will go through more REM the next to catch up on this sleep stage.

Getting more REM sleep

Studies have shown that better REM sleep helps boost your mood during the day. How can you get more REM sleep? One simple way is to try to sleep a little more in the morning. As your sleep cycles through the night, it starts with longer periods of deep sleep. By the morning, the REM sleep stage is longer. Try sleeping an extra half hour to hour and see if your mood improves.

Improving your overall sleep will also increase your REM sleep. If your body is deprived of deep sleep, it will try to make that up first- at the expense of REM sleep.

http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleeping.htm

Essay

2008-07-17T04:14:00.000-07:00

Theory….Now I Get It
Tania Hockings
301020553

When first reading through Ken Friedman’s article “Theory construction in design research: criteria: approaches and methods” I found myself nodding throughout and when it came to highlighting points the whole article was covered in yellow. For me, one of Friedman’s last statements summed up the entire article “I believe that a study of design based on profound knowledge embraces the empirical world of people and problems in a deeper way than purely self generated artistry can do”

There is never a right or wrong answer to how we define design, a different statement holds true to every individual; one that cannot be mistaken is design is about transforming less desirable situations to preferred situations. This cannot be achieved by pure talent, we first have to know which problems need to be solved and then know how to successfully achieve this. The goals of design are solving a problem, meeting needs, improving situations and creating something new or useful. As designers we play a pinnacle role in the general evolution, the design process takes on new meaning, it is our job to find the right answers and unless we do I see little purpose for a designer, it all starts with theory.

Reading through this I became increasingly convinced of my standpoint and felt my mind blossoming and light bulbs switching on, everything I read I felt I could relate back to my past, present and even future design problems. Design begins with a problem and that needs to be systematically researched to find a successful solution and even then the research does not stop, critique of your solution gains further knowledge base to feed off for the next design problem.

In the past as a developing designer we have always been encouraged and often forced to research into history in design and neighboring fields, to look for ideas and inspiration for our work. In the first year of university the extent of this research involved looking at some images, taking aspects we liked then combined with our own limited knowledge and experiences we formed ideas for our designs that we believed to be solutions to our brief. Through second year this show little improvement, we were beginning to use research as a starting point in all our work but nothing considerably in-depth and I would often find myself finding what I thought to be a great idea very early on so would shrug off the need for any further research, to then discover later down the track a project quickly sliding downhill and too late to save, a mistake that I somehow repeated many a time. However, into third year, the present day I have begun to realize the mistake and see a comparison, research is now a natural part of our design process, which without I personally would not know where to begin. Furthermore we are now beginning to go through a more systematic process in both researching and designing, by firstly breaking down the brief, finding the problem that needs to be solved and what requirements and aspects will help to find the most accurate solution. We also form proposals which describes a draft of our ideas and concepts, the what, how, why, who, where and when which provides us with an earlier internal and external critique. Throughout our projects we are continually developing, extending and critiquing our work, the research cycle does not stop.

Looking back now I can easily see the changing pattern; as my design and general experiences have increased these systematic research patterns have developed and helped to pinpoint more accurate and successful solutions that can be continually learnt from and built on. Although it feels as though theory is now becoming a natural part of our design process I can also see how much further we can push, by critically theorising all that we do it can become natural and help us individually gain experience, knowledge and furthermore our own theories to add to the world palette, the theories will all recycle and form the new.

This reading has helped me see this contrast and how much of an impact theory can help us in design. Theory is the tool that understands experience, knowledge and research, the three words that form success in any field of life or the world. Real design, helpful design, design that changes the world and design that every designer should strive for; the key is held in theory.

Interesting Images

2008-07-17T03:39:00.001-07:00

Ken Friedman

2008-07-17T03:14:00.000-07:00

Key Points/Interesting Information:

Theory construction in design research: criteria: approaches, and methods
Ken Friedman, Department of Organisation and Leadership, Norwegian School of Management, Postboks 4676, Sofienberg, 0506 Oslo, Norway

Key:
D – Design/ers
R – Research
T – Theory/ies

Definitions: design, research, theory

-Design involves solving problems, creating something new, or transforming less desirable situations to preferred situations
-Designers must know how things work and why
-The goal of design; solving problem, meeting needs, improving situation, something new or useful
-To plan out in the mind; to have a intent; to devise for a specific end
-D. is the entire process across the full range of domains required for outcome
-Foundation of D. theory; it’s interdisciplinary, integrative
-Intersection point
-D. is in everything
-Now plays a role in the general evolution of the environment and the D. process takes on new meaning
-Failure = lack of method, absence of systematic comprehensive understanding, gaps in knowledge an preparation

Defining research

-Research: investigation/experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts
-Principles are abstracted and generalized to cover a variety of cases
-Basic/Applied/Clinical
-Each test theories and findings of other kinds of research
-R. gives alternative solutions and sense of the areas where creative intervention can make a difference to problems
-Designer must identify problems, select appropriate goals and realize solutions
-R. questions
-Designer: Analyst-discover problems; Synthesist - solve problems; Generalist - range of talents to realize solutions; Leader - organize teams when 1 talent isn’t enough; Critic - analyses post solution problem has been successfully solved
-D. are thinkers - thought to action
-A broad understanding of general principles based on research gives D. a background stock of knowledge on which to store
-Stock of principles, facts, theories
-This knowledge is embodied in the minds and working practices of millions of people
-Problem comes first in design
-Continual interaction of D. problems and solutions generates the problematics and knowledge stock of the field
-R. is a way of asking questions
-R. asks questions in a systematic way
-Original R. tackles new problems or checks previous findings
-D. knowledge grows in part from practice therefore D. knowledge and R. overlap
-Critical thinking and systematic enquiry form the foundation of theory
-R. offers us the tools to critically think and systematic enquiry to bring answers out of the field of action

Defining theory

-Theory is a model
-Illustration describing how something works by showing its elements in relationship to one another
-T. is abstract thought; speculation
-Systematic thought organized in T.
-T. allows us to frame and organize our observations
-T. permits us to question what we see and do
-T. helps us develop generalisable answers that can be put to use by humans in other times and places
-Understanding things; how they are and how they work
-Failure = 1. Proposals at early stages of development 2. completed attempts at solutions where -D. believe they have solved the problem but have not
-Experience will answer a question and a question comes from T.
-Some T. are complex, others are simple
-T. is a set of ideas, concepts, principles, methods used to explain a wide set of observed facts
-D. who can not observe facts cannot T. them
-Externalisation of internal images
-Solving problems demands robust engagement with the problem itself
-Problem sets the premise by establishing the boundary conditions of a solution
-Problem opens a forum for the imagination\
-T. building an act of disciplined imagination

How theory works

-What/How/Why/Who,Where,When
-What and how describe only why explains
-Ability to identify the ways in which the structural relationships of a T. change under the influence of new elements is the beginning of new perspectives
-Every carefully defined and logically integrated conceptual scheme constitutes a system
-T. are models that resemble model train sets, they must describe motion to demonstrate the properties of the systems they resemble
-Creating models that show characteristics of the issue, repeat process until simplest possible model remains demonstrating the issue
-Keep at it till it gets simple
-Point of a model is to give a simplified representation of reality
-A model reveals the essence of what is going on so your model should be reduced to just the pieces required to make it work

Theory construction problems in design research

-T. knowledge is more objective than immediate experience
-A T. is something other than myself
-T. is more true when it can be set out on paper as a system, rules
-Sensitizing concepts; descriptive richness, T. as guide to discovery and modeling
-Explicit knowledge needs to be rendered articulately for shared communication and reflection
-Without a body of T. based knowledge the D. profession will not be prepared to meet challenges that face D. in today’s complex world

Future directions

-Begin with a foundation of definitions using these to build a range of applicable concepts
-T. rich design can be playful as well as disciplined
-T. based design is suited to the large scale social/economic needs of industrial age
-To reach from knowing to doing requires practice
-To reach from doing to knowing requires the articulation and critical inquiry that leads to reflective insight
-Experience alone, without theory, teaches nothing about what to do to improve quality and competitive position, nor how to do it
-Experience will answer a question and a question comes from theory
-Our interpretation and understanding of experience leads to knowledge
-Knowledge emerges from critical enquiry
-Systematic/scientific knowledge arises from the theories that allow us to question and learn from the world
-To serve successfully demands an ability to cause change toward desired goals
-T. is a tool that allows us to conceptualize and realize aspects of D.
-R. is the collection of methods that enables us to use that tool
-KF believes that a study of design based on profound knowledge embraces the empirical world of people and problems in a deeper way than purely self generated artistry can do
-D. needs to rest on all 3 legs of science, observation, theorizing and experimenting to sort useful -T. from the rest
-D. practice and D. research require T.