New app prompts random thoughts to help you sleep
Posted May 9, 2014 7:29 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Warm milk, counting sheep, and even white noise aren’t always sure-fire ways to fall asleep. A researcher from SFU has created an app designed to help you doze off.
Luc Beaudoin analyzed what keeps you awake a night, and developed the “mySleepButton” app that essentially hijacks thoughts, allowing you to drift off. Would-be sleepers simply put on their headphones and pick up their smartphone.
“There’s a ‘put me to sleep’ button; they press that button and then they listen to the… audio that’s issued from their iPhone or iPad and then their job is to simply imagine the things that they’re told to imagine,” explains Beaudoin.
The app takes the user through a random list of thoughts, such as football, giraffes, or french toast. He says by focusing on a random myriad of items, your mind is preventing sleep-interfering thoughts.
“The idea, really, is to help the users stop thinking about the kinds of things that keep them awake and to get their minds in a state that’s conducive to falling asleep, which is actually a little bit hard to do, sometimes.”
Beaudion tells us the app differs from others because it’s based on an analysis of what keeps people awake night, such as worrying, planning, and problem solving. He adds it could also help increase cognitive productivity.
mySleepButton is currently only available for Apple users.
