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We share our first pitch to philips with you. We worked on it during the first weeks of the PREMIUM programme.

When we had our first meeting in Eindhoven with our client we presented this to them.

It did not go the way we planned it, though it was fun and in the end we learned a lesson.

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Sleep positions? Should you know about that?

Sleeping is something that you just do, right? But somehow we all woke up at least once completely messed up, with the feet at the top of the bed and the head hanging out, or something similar and less extreme. This should ring a bell in you.

Let’s dive in the topic of what you should know about sleeping positions. Research has proven that as you get older you move less during the night, at least concerning your sleeping position (De Koninck, Lorrain,& Gagnon, 1992). So that is good news, because moving less means better sleep. There are also changes in which body position you spend most time in. During childhood equal time is spend on the back, stomach and lying on the side, whereas older people spend most time lying on the right side (De Koninck et al., 1992). In another study it was proven that babies slept best when sleeping on the stomach. They were sleeping more deeply and for longer periods (Kahn et al., 1993). So which sleeping position is best for you is partly dependent on your age.

There is evidence that people use a certain set of sleeping positions during the night and which is consistent over different nights (De Koninck, Gagnon,& Lallier, 1983). So there are different types of sleeping postions (Sleep Junkie, 2016) namely: Side Sleeping, Fetal Position, Stomach Sleeping, Back Sleeping and Starfish Position. A majority of the responding people slept in the fetal position, which might be bad for your joints though. Next up are Side sleepers, again there might be pressure posed on your body, which you can avoid by using the right matresses and pillows (Sleep Junkie, 2016). Around 5-8 % of the remaining respondents indicated to prefer sleeping on the stomach, Starfish position or on their back (Sleep Junkie, 2016). So depending on which sleeping position you like the best, you should think about matresses and also pillows which can relive pressure from your body.

There seems to be a link between sleep positions and quality of sleep. Research showed that poor sleeper woke up more often than good sleepers (De Koninck et al., 1983). Also it was shown that good sleepers spend more time on their back with a straight head (De Koninck et al. 1983). Based on these findings you should consider sleeping positions to optimize your sleep. But when you consider only sleeping on your back you could probably profit from the fact that sleeping on the back is associated with more snoring and sleep apnea (Ravesloot, Van Maanen, Dun,& de Vries, 2013). So only sleeping on the back is also no option, especially if you are not sleeping alone or have thin walls so the neighbours would be annoyed by your snoring.

Another interesting link seem to exist betwen sleeping positions and personality traits and general mental health. The fetal position for example has been linked to being hard on the outside but having a soft core (Sleep Junkie, 2016; WebMD, 2009). Something nice is if you are a sleeper using a lot of Starfish sleeping time, as you may make friends easily and also very quick. As a conclusion both (Sleep Junkie, 2016; WebMD, 2009) say that if you sleep in an uncomfortable or wrong sleeping osition you are crancy and less rested on the next day.

As a lesson to be learned you can take away that there are different sleeping positions, which have different meanings and effects on you and your health, influenced partly by your age.

If you want to read some details you can consult our sources:

De Koninck, J., Gagnon, P., & Lallier, S. (1983). Sleep positions in the young adult and their relationship with the subjective quality of sleep. Sleep, 6(1), 52-59.

De Koninck, J., Lorrain, D., & Gagnon, P. (1992). Sleep positions and position shifts in five age groups: an ontogenetic picture. Sleep, 15(2), 143-149.

Kahn, A., Groswasser, J., Sottiaux, M., Rebuffat, E., Franco, P., & Dramaix, M. (1993). Prone or supine body position and sleep characteristics in infants. Pediatrics, 91(6), 1112-1115.

Ravesloot, M. J. L., Van Maanen, J. P., Dun, L., & De Vries, N. (2013). The undervalued potential of positional therapy in position-dependent snoring and obstructive sleep apnea—a review of the literature. Sleep and Breathing, 17(1), 39-49.

Sleep Junkie (2016, March 25). What does your sleep position mean? Retrieved from: http://www.sleepjunkie.org/what-does-your-sleep-position-mean/

WebMD (2005, June 29). What Your Sleeping Style Says About You. Retrieved from: http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/features/what-your-sleeping-style-says-about-you#1

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So, in this video some tips on getting up motivated are provided. It is not only necessary to have good sleeping habits, but also balance it out with some good day habits. Only if both are worked out you can really have the energy you need.

We totally agree that planning your tasks for the next day is a perfect thing to do, not only to get up motivated, but also to fall asleep quicker, as you don’t have to worry that much about how you can do everything you have to do the next day.

We also agree with rescheduling your day if it does not work for you how you are currently doing it. How well you can finish your tasks also depends on whether you are a morning person or a night owl. If you are a morning person you might be more productive in the morning, if you are a night owl you will probably not be productive in the morning but in the evening instead.

Building a morning routine is also a great tip. As well as you need an evening routine to get enough refreshing sleep, you also need a routine to start the day. Such a routine can help you get things done and also be more motivated as you know whats next and that you will get all your things done. Having a routine also makes you stress out less, which can also affect your sleep and mood during the day.

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How long can we go without sleep!

So, we have talked a lot about the consequences of sleep deprivation and how you can achieve a better sleep quality. But the central question often burning in people, at the verge of losing their sanity over stress and sleep deprivation is: How long can we actually go without sleep?

There are some experiments done with rats, to shwo how long they can go wihtout sleep before dying. It was shown that of 10 rats used in this particular experiment (Rechtschaffem, Bergmann, Everson, Kushida,& Gilliland, 1989) only 2 made it longer than 11 days. The rats showed increased eating while loosing a lot of weight, as their bodies were burning energy excessively. The bodies were not working efficiently anymore. Also their appearances were changing and they showed a lot of cuts and bruises over their bodies. This study thoug, had several flaws, which make a causal link between total sleep deprivation and death impossible.

What about humans? There are abnormal cases where people are going without sleep for a long time, such as Michael Corke who suffered from fatal familial insomnia and died after 6 months of sleep deprivation (Kyle). Fatal Familial Insomnia is a genetically inherited sleep disorder, which is always resulting in death. But what about sleep deprivation of less than 11 days or 6 months.There are already severe effects, like increased inflammatory markers, meaning effects on your immune system, after “only” 36 hours of sleep deprivation (Theobald, 2016). You can see that there are severe effects on your health after just a little sleep deprivation. You will also experience micro sleeps, engaged by your body who is fearing to break down completely (Theobald, 2016). 

We are not sure how long humans can go completely without sleep, but 11 days (Kyle) led already to hallucinations and severe health effects, when a student tried it in the 1960ies. We can only guess from studies on animals and humans with sleep disorders that it is not very long and that the effects are gradually worsening until your whole body shuts down.

As a lesson to be learnt you should know that there are severe effects starting at 24 hours concerning attention and memory, effects on your physical health directly starting around 36 hours and how long you can go from there always depends on your previous health history.

If you want the information firsthand, jsut check out our sources:

Kyle, S. How long can you go without sleep?. Retrieved from: https://www.sleepio.com/articles/sleep-science/how-long-can-you-go-without-sleep/

Rechtschaffen, A., Bergmann, B. M., Everson, C. A., Kushida, C. A., & Gilliland, M. A. (1989). Sleep deprivation in the rat: X. Integration and discussion of the findings. Sleep, 12(1), 68-87.

Theobald, M. (2016, February 22). What Happens When You Don’t Sleep for Days. Retrieved from: http://www.everydayhealth.com/conditions/what-happens-when-you-dont-sleep-days/

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Sleeptracking? Why try?

Our whole project is centered around sleeptracker. But many people never try it in their whole life. So why should you even bother thinking about sleep tracking?

For once, just check out all our previous posts on what can go wrong if you sleep too little, too much or in a unoptimal sleep stage combination. If you could not guess it: Your health deteriorates, your mood turns bad, your attention and memory fail to do their job and it can influece your whole life. So you should always try to keep a healthy balance among sleeping little and sleeping much. And now we introduce to you the helpful idea to do so, namely sleep tracking.

There are different classes of tracking devices, ranging from only sleep tracking bracelets, over matress covers, nightstand applications to complete beds. But all began with the polysomnography, we also introduced you to in a previous post. This is done in a sleeping lab, covered heart rate, EEG, movement, perspiration and several other measures and is quite reliable and validly measuring sleep, though not applicable for home sleep monitoring, what the average person does. If you do not want to establish a sleeping lab in your own home you have to consider all these, approximately feeling like 1 million, devices and choose the one that perfectly fits you.

This sounds like a task that can never be finished with an acceptable result. But wait. You could just go further with reading and we tell you something about sleep tracker, that you should consider when choosing them for yourself.

1. Think about whether you want to wear a bracelet or not. If yes, you could choose among some really stylish ones, which though usually only measure movement in an acceptable prize range. If you have a little more money to spare, try to chose one that also measures some kind of heartrate at least, as do most of the current fitness bracelets, like Jawbone Up and Fitbit. One of the often said most reliable bracelets is the Chrome Base, though it has not a very stylish design. Contrary to the percecption of being unreliable or low quality, because of the easiness of use, you could also try one of the many Apps that track sleep on your phone, like Sleep as Android or Sleep Cycle 5.0, before you invest in a pricy bracelet or other device. Because maybe you are just not the type to sleep track (but I would not expect that ;)).

2. Think about whether you want to track something else than sleep aswell. If so, a fitness bracelet would usually be the classic choice. Though this has not to be the default mode. You could also chose an Application tracking not only sleep but more. like MyFitnessPal. If you really do not want to wear one of those lovely, stylish fitness tracking bracelets, or go with the usually cheap Apps, and still want a wearable, you could also go and choose a sleepmask (e.g. Rhythm Dreem, Neuroon etc), a shirt (e.g. the hexoskin shirt, SmartShirt etc.) or a ring (e.g. Thim, Oura Ring etc.) to track your sleep. With the sleepmasks you often have the feature of EEG, which can measure your sleepstages really reliably, so a pluspoint on sleeptracking. A minus is that they often are not vey comfortable, except you, again, have more money to spend and can go for an expensive one, which then oftentimes also features light therapy. Shirts are usually more often used by real athletes, as the techniques in it make it expensive. So they are mostly not only used for tracking sleep, but also stuff like muscle usage etc. A worthy alternative are the rings. They are small, though usually big in pricing, and shown in several studies to be realtively well measuring. 

3. If you decided to only track your sleep, or this is your highest priority, and you do not want to wear any device on your body, then an “invisbile” might be the choice for you. An invisible is usually a tracker that is situated somewhere in your bedroom. There are multiple possibilities for example, matress covers (e.g. Beddit,ReST Matress covers etc.), nightstand devices (e.g. Hello Sense, Sleepace Reston) or lamps (e.g. Philips Wake Up Light). These devices have the plus point that they reliabily measure the sleeping environment, for example temperature, noise and light. A deficit compared to bracelets, but similarity to Apps, is that they are not attached to the sleeper. So they might be mixed with the movement the cat makes, when she enters the bed. Or if you do not sleep alone, your sleeping partners movements and noises will also be tracked.

You can already see from just making 3 decision steps there are a lot of possibilities. Not for everyone the stylish, fitness bracelet is the right choice, though it often seems like it is the only choice. Keep in mind that there are several different classes of sleep trackers and each lay the main focus on a different feature of sleep.

As a lesson you can learn from this: There is no perfect sleep tracker, but you can find the perfect one for you individually!

A lot of the gathered information in this blogpost is based on what we did during our Premium Project until now. So we assessed a lot of sleep tracker on severeal criteria, but If you want to read some more information on this, for example on test results or why to chose which tracker check out these sources:

Green, E. (2017, April 4).  The 10 Best Sleep Trackers in 2017. Retrieved from: http://www.nosleeplessnights.com/best-sleep-tracker/

Henry ,A. (2013, March 3).  Five Best Sleep Tracking Gadgets or Apps. Retrieved from: http://lifehacker.com/5993005/five-best-sleep-tracking-gadgets-or-apps

Langley, H.& Sumra, H. (2017, April 12).  Counting sheep: The best sleep trackers and monitors. Retrieved from: https://www.wareable.com/withings/best-sleep-trackers-and-monitors

Winter, C. (2014, February 26).  Personal Sleep Monitors: Do They Work?. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-christopher-winter/sleep-tips_b_4792760.html

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When you decide on sleep tracking you can use one of the many sleeptracking devices, which are usually connected to a special App. Most of the Apps also provide tips on how to sleep better. If the App recognizes that you have not slept well, meaning waking up a lot, napping restlessly or waking up in a less optimal sleep phase it will usually suggest helpful tricks to make you more mindful about your sleeproutines and sleep hygiene.

We looked into many sleeptracking devices up until now and the tips and charts the apps provide about your sleep seem to be one of the most important features.

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We just needed to post another picture of our Pecha Kucha Presentation.

It was such a great experience. You probably would not guess it, but we had some trouble with our task for Philips in the beginning, so it was very nice to have this absolutely great feedback on our project and our process as a team.

It is also a very good memory, as it was our last meeting with all our team members, as Chava will not be in Maastricht for the next steps :(