A Spring 2019 DLab Case Study
It is well known that college students don’t get enough sleep. According to Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 60% of college students feel tired during the day.
In order to help solve this widespread issue, the Tri-Sleep team began by testing a before-bed meditation exercise. In addition to doing the exercise themselves, the team asked coaches and peers to participate in the exercise over a weekend, and then report on their sleep. The Tri-Sleep team sought the root cause of the issue. They found that the most common reasons college students don’t get enough sleep were overuse of screens, mental health concerns, and a lack of time-management skills. These insights in hand, the Tri-Sleep team continued their empathy work while beginning to prototype solutions and present them to the end-users for feedback. After iterating, the team built a working prototype: a combination salt rock lamp, oil diffuser, and bluetooth speaker to play white noise while the user meditated.
After a week, users provided feedback about sleep quality before and after using the solution. The team was pleased that their solution was a success, with users reporting significantly higher quality sleep and feeling more rested and awake during the day.
Design Team: Charlie M., Dimitri N., Gretchen B., Hannah L.
