Qualitative Findings for Sleep Intervention Testing with Dr Richard

The sleep experiments were carried out from 28th Feb to 21st March. We alternate between 2 watches to save time. When the 1st participant is doing the intervention testing, the 2nd participant is collecting the baseline data at the same time. When the 1st participant is done with his intervention testing, I will pass the watch back to Ricco so he would extract the data and re-program the watch for the 3rd participant. Unfortunately, the 1st participant didn't synchronise the data to the watch everyday so most of the data was not retrieved and 1st participant had to go through a second round after the 3rd participant was done with intervention testing.

These were the set-ups at their own homes.

The experiment utilises both qualitative and quantitative data collection. A total of 7 nights of baseline data and 11 nights of intervention testing data were collected. Here are their sleep diaries which they are required to fill in every day. Bed-time was listed as the time they entered the bed, whether or not he/she has the intention to sleep or engage in other activities.

Video interviews were initiated after the testings and here are the key qualitative findings from participants and their sleep diaries.

• All participants showed improvements in their recreational screen-use in bed
• All 3 participants’ screen time were minimised by half or more during the intervention testing compared to their screen time collected for baseline data. When asked why, participants mentioned words such as relaxing, calming, soothing, sleepy, comfortable, conducive to sleep, beneficial, helpful, and hypnotizing.
• The participants attributed their sleepiness to the ambient experience as it has help set the mood for them to fall asleep easily and more quickly. They shared that they felt more fresh and energetic the next day and had better sleep quality after using the interventions.
• When asked if the individual products helped them to put down their phones earlier and revealed to them about the 'secret' design intentions to minimise their ERSU, they shared,
  - The mesh made my screen blurry and I have to make effort to squint at the screen so it makes me want to put down my phone and stop using it, I didn't find it annoying though
  - I thought like it will be annoying because of the mesh and I can't see the screen clearly. It is actually quite pleasant and it helps to remind me to put down the phone.
  - Another thing about the blanket is that being short sighted, I remove my glasses before going to bed and I usually use my phone without my glasses on the bed. When I am using this blanket, I cannot really see because the blanket mesh has a blurry effect on the screen so I cannot really use the phone on bed. The whole setup with the blanket, light and music actually gave a very calm and soothing effect. It sets a nice ambience where it feels like a relaxing massage place where people can let their guard down and relax
  
  This could be understand that even though the mesh may be inconvenient to them, other elements from the multi-sensory experience compensated for the lack of pleasure.
• All participants found the experience enjoyable and did not reach out to use their phones after putting them down, they shared the following:
  - I didn’t feel bored. It was comfortable under the blanket especially with the lavender scent. I felt that I was calm enough to fall asleep.
  - I felt that the weight of the blanket presses on the body and it gave a calming effect. It also made me feel reluctant to move once i get into my sleeping position.
  - The weighted blanket made me lazy to move my hands out to take the phone and after using the phone I need to put my phone down and put my hand back in. It sort of makes me feels lazy and make me just want to sleep immediately.
  - I don’t think there was any time I felt that I need to reach out to my mobile device again because it was really comfortable and my body was in the state where it is ready to sleep so there was not really a point to restart the setting up again and reach out for the phone.
  - This new version of pulsing light has a better timing and it sort of decrease my heartbeat and made me ready to fall asleep. It really gave a nice feeling pre-sleep.
  - The experience actually helps to prove a conducive environment for sleep
• All 3 participants are interested to continue with the multi-sensory experience as they feel that it is comfortable, relaxing and conducive for sleeping.

Some quantitative data are missing as participants forgot to synchronise for some days while other days they were out partying till late and these data could be biased and are excluded from the data analysis. I'll share more in the next post.

Full transcription of video interviews can be found here.

Participants have kindly allowed me to publish the interviews, feedback will solely be used for MA research findings and analysis only.