WEBVTT - Sleepy Time Tech 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.960 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.279 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:18.760 How Stuff Works and a love about things tech. This 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:23.360 episode is a request from none other than my producer TORII, 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:26.439 who said I should do an episode related to sleep 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:31.120 because that's one of her favorite activities. So today we're 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:33.760 going to look at the intersection of sleep and technology. 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:37.760 But first, let's talk about the science of sleep for 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:42.560 a bit, because the tech that is in that sleep 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:46.080 industry is all supposed to tap into the science of 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:48.960 sleep in some way or another. So let's get an 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:53.000 understanding of that first. Now, the average human spends between 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.200 one four to one third of their life asleep. If 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:00.840 you're TORII, adds closer to fifty fifty. So at the 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:03.639 end of your life, you could divide your age by 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:06.800 three and that's how many years you spent snoozing. More 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:10.319 or less you lay about No, but really, sleep is 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:14.520 is really important. Until the mid twenty century, the general 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.119 thinking around sleep was that it was just a time 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.600 of rest when your body and your brain kind of 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:24.319 went into hibernation mode and laid dormant, but in actuality, 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:27.399 your brain is pretty active when you're sleeping. In fact, 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:30.479 it can be so active that it can look almost 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.640 identical to an awake brain. It's engaged in activities that 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:38.200 are necessary to life, and according to Dr Mark Wu, 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:42.240 a neurologist at Johns Hopkins, those activities are also very 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:47.080 closely connected to quality of life, so not just making 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:50.960 life go on, but making the life you have worth living. 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:56.360 Sleep consists of multiple stages in a cycle that repeats 0:01:56.480 --> 0:02:01.280 several times per night. The first half for first section 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:04.640 of that cycle would fall into the category of non 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:08.720 R E M sleep or non RIM sleep. That itself 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:12.440 has four stages. So in the first stage, the body 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:17.280 is between being awake and asleep. This is the stage 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:18.960 you are in when you're first going to sleep. It's 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:21.359 also the stage you end up in when you're waking up, 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:25.000 typically unless you've been awakened out of the middle of 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:28.240 your sleep by something else. In the second stage, you 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:30.800 are in a light sleep, and at that stage your 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:34.040 heart rate and your breathing regulate and your body temperature 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.840 begins to drop. The third and fourth stages are deeper sleep, 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:40.919 and we now think it's these stages where the brain 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:45.079 experiences the restorative benefit of sleep. This is important for 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:49.080 the formation of memories, it's important for learning. It helps 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.919 you incorporate the stuff that you've experienced into long term memories, 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:56.320 and it prepares your brain for the next day so 0:02:56.400 --> 0:03:00.240 that when you encounter new information, you can incorporate that 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:05.040 as well. Next comes R. E. M. And I do 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:09.560 not mean the band from Athens, Georgia, although they are great. 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:13.400 You know, they're a bunch of shiny, happy people. But 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:18.080 instead I'm talking about rapid eye movement. Now, in that 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:22.200 stage of sleep, the eyes are moving quickly behind closed lids. 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:24.920 Brain activity is similar to what you would experience when 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:28.960 you're awake. This is when you can have intense, emotionally 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:33.480 charged dreams. Some sleep experts have observed brain activity and 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:37.120 rem sleep that have exceeded the brain activity of an 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:40.400 awake person. So it's also in this stage when you 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:46.280 could experience a phenomenon called sleep paralysis. Now we don't 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:50.080 know a whole lot about this experience other than it 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:55.560 can be absolutely unnerving. I've actually experienced this in the past, 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:59.640 although not recently, a lot of people have had bouts 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:03.360 of sleep paralysis, and it can really scare you when 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:07.240 it happens. So, Uh, here's typically what's going on in 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:10.160 an episode of sleep paralysis. Your brain is aware of 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.320 your surroundings, but your body does not respond to your 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:17.280 desire to move, So you feel like you're awake, like 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:20.599 a d percent awake, except that you cannot move at all. 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:23.680 So this is very unnerving to say the least. It 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.640 also can be accompanied by hallucinations of both a visual 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:31.360 and an auditory nature. And in fact, there's a lot 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:34.360 of folklore and a lot of urban legends that are 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:38.040 based around this phenomena as people have experienced this and 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:42.200 tried to make sense of it in some way. Uh. 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:47.720 The mythology behind the succubus is often linked to sleep paralysis. 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:52.080 There's another one called night hag syndrome, where people have 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:55.960 said they've imagined a figure of a of a menacing 0:04:56.040 --> 0:05:01.279 woman sometimes perched on their chest, preventing them from being 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:05.120 able to move. There are others who have interpreted this 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.960 as being visited by aliens, like there were these mysterious 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:12.720 alien like figures gathered around their bed and they were 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:17.039 unable to move. They all seem real and it is 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:20.800 genuinely scary to not be able to move. But from 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:24.160 what we can tell, this is all based on an 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:30.600 actual natural phenomenon that happens sometimes when you are aware 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:34.120 during an R E M stage of sleep, but you 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:38.240 are not unable to move. There's no supernatural cause for that. 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:42.000 It's something that just occasionally happens for some people that 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:45.799 happens more frequently than others. Sometimes it happens during times 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:49.960 of great stress and anxiety, and other times you might 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:52.440 not have these problems at all. But why would you 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:54.240 be paralyzed in the first place, Why would you be 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:56.960 unable to move? Well? When you go into R E 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:01.080 M sleep, your body essentially has the sort of shut 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:05.680 off switch for uh, your your conscious movement. It's probably 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:09.080 so that we don't hurt ourselves by thrashing around violently 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.919 in response to those vivid, emotionally charged dreams that I 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.960 mentioned that we experienced during R E M sleep. So 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:19.039 it's our body's way of protecting itself during that part 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.520 of the sleep cycle. Without it, we would be falling 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:24.640 on a bed or punching the person next to us 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:29.040 or whatever. It's not. You know, it's not meant to 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:31.560 be harmful, but it is not a great experience if 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.200 we happen to be aware of our surroundings, it's supposed 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:36.760 to be, you know, taking effect only when we are 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:39.800 unconscious and we're not aware of things. So when you 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:42.680 are aware of everything but you're unable to move, it's 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.440 pretty creepy. By the way, I've heard. One way of 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:48.559 trying to deal with this is concentrate on making very 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:52.520 small movements with a part of your body, like your toes, 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:56.360 and that this can gradually get you out of the 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:59.360 the stage of sleep so that you are fully awake 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:02.440 and you don't have that experience anymore. If nothing else, 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.160 you can take your focus off of the hallucinations you 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.839 might otherwise be experiencing. So on a typical night, you'll 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:12.280 actually cycle through those various stages up to four or 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:16.560 five times. But also with each cycle, you spend a 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:20.080 little less time in stages three and four of the 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.720 non r EM sleep, and you spend more time in 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:28.200 REM sleep. Now, previously scientists thought that REM sleep was 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:31.240 the stage that was really important, that was restorative, that 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:33.680 would give you that lovely feeling of being rested when 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:37.920 you wake up. These days, scholarship suggests that's really those 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:40.560 third and fourth stages of non rem sleep that are 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:44.280 the most important. So kind of like how food science 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:47.800 keeps changing, sleep science keeps changing too, where we think 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:50.040 we know what's going on, and then as we learn 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:53.480 more we realize, well, that might not actually be true. 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.640 Maybe this other thing is true. There are two main 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:01.800 drivers for sleep biological drivers. The first is what we 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:06.040 call circadian rhythms. These are controlled by what amounts to 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:09.800 a biological clock in the brain. The clock does not 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:13.000 just keep time. I mean it does keep time. You 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:16.600 can separate people from external stimuli and they will fall 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:20.240 into a natural circadian rhythm. Typically it's a little bit 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:23.560 longer than twenty four hours that rhythm, so you will 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:27.800 gradually get off the day night cycle that everyone else 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:31.640 is on if you are again sequestered from everybody else. 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:36.000 But it reacts to external stimuli like light cueues. So 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:38.600 when it gets darker, the brain starts to trigger the 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:42.160 production of a hormone called melatonin, and when the brain 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:47.480 senses light, it's begins to to pull back on melatonin production. 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:49.720 So this is one of the reasons you hear people 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:53.040 say you should limit the light sources that are in 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:56.880 your sleeping area so that you can help trigger this 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.160 production of melatonin. It's one of the reasons why I 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:02.440 use a sleep mass actually. Now, as for what melatonin 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:07.160 actually does for humans, well, it's not completely understood, but 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:11.000 it might help synchronize circadian rhythms in different parts of 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:14.560 the body. As this hormone travels throughout the body, it's 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:16.400 produced by the brain, but then it travels to all 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:19.640 of our organs and it interacts with tissues that have 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:24.360 melatonin receptors. Melotonin receptors are special proteins that some tissues have. 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:30.840 Melatonin probably contributes to initiating and maintaining sleep, and also 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.480 helping our bodies maintain the rhythms necessary for typical activities 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:37.960 during the day and night cycles. So, in other words, 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:40.840 making sure everything is ready for action in the daytime 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:45.240 and ready for rest at night. And it's not essential 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:48.520 for human sleep, but we tend to sleep better during 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.760 the times that melatonin is being chugged out by our brains. 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:55.400 So you can sleep during the day and be awake 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:59.120 at night, it's just not as easy to do. The 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:03.080 second thing to regulate sleep is called the sleep drive. 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:09.640 Our bodies require sleep, Our bodies crave sleep throughout the day. 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:12.800 Our desire for sleep increases, and when it reaches a 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:16.680 certain level, we gots to sleep or we start suffering 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:20.760 some pretty nasty drawbacks. Sleep and hunger are in many 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:24.000 ways similar to one another because our body also increases 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:27.559 in hunger and we want to eat. However, our body 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:31.160 goes an extra step when it comes to sleep, because 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.720 no matter how hungry you are, your body doesn't make 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:40.319 you eat. You make yourself eat, but your body doesn't 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:42.640 force you to eat. However, if you're super sleepy, your 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:45.680 body can totally make you go to sleep without you 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:49.000 choosing for that to happen. Even if you don't want 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:51.200 to go to sleep at that moment, maybe you're doing 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:55.200 something important like driving a car. If you're tired enough, 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:57.280 your body might force you to go through what are 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:01.120 called micro sleep sessions. During those moments, you'll sleep for 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:03.360 a couple of seconds at a time, even with your 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:05.880 eyes open, so you kind of zone out for those 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:08.800 couple of seconds, which can again be really dangerous depending 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.240 on what you're doing. Also, you might want to take naps. 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.200 If you want to take naps, that's fine, just try 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:17.480 to limit your naps to less than half an hour, 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:19.880 especially if it's later in the day because otherwise that 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:21.880 can throw off your sleep drive and make it harder 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.520 for you to get to sleep at night. So typically 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:27.720 you want to keep your naps to twenty to thirty minutes, 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:32.040 especially later in the day. Sleep helps our brains deal 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:37.440 with input. It promotes what is called brain plasticity. When 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:40.760 you're low on sleep, you're gonna have problems learning stuff, 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:44.720 remembering things. You're gonna have that foggy feeling. Sleep also 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.440 is important for other systems not just our brains, like 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:50.760 our immune systems and our metabolism, So you want to 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:54.520 get good, regular sleep for good health. In general, the 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.959 sleep requirements are not set in stone for everyone. It's 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:01.559 not exactly like you can't just say everybody needs seven 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.080 and a half hours or eight hours of sleep. It 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:06.120 varies from person to person at least a little bit, 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:10.400 but generally speaking, healthy adults need between seven and nine 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.160 hours of sleep per night if they want to be 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.440 at their best. Kids and teenagers need more sleep than 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:19.400 adults do, and the older we get in general, the 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.800 less sleep we tend to need. But even senior citizens 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:25.360 would really only be at their best if they got 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:28.000 at least seven hours of sleep per night. So we've 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:31.079 got an activity that takes up a third of our lives, 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.280 and it's important to engage in this activity in order 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.440 for us to maintain a healthy lifestyle. We need sleep 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:40.040 to be able to function in general. So it should 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:43.200 come as no surprise that there are tons of products 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.720 out there that target sleep, because it's a no brainer. 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.720 Everybody needs it. So if you can make a product 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:53.720 that seems to help people do that activity or do 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:57.400 that activity more efficiently, then you stand to make a 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:00.320 lot of money because everybody's got to do it, and 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:03.280 maybe your product actually helps people. That would be the 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.199 ideal situation, of course, that the thing you're selling actually 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.560 does have a positive effect. But some of you may 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:12.559 already be way ahead of me here. If there's still 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:15.640 a lot we do not know or understand about sleep, 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.760 it's probably challenging to create products that will work for 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:23.280 a wide variety of people in a way that legitimately 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.959 helps you sleep. That is in fact the case, or 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.600 appears to be. That's not to say every sleep product 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:32.120 out there is bunk, but it's good to turn on 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:35.920 those critical thinking skills when we start looking at sleep technology. 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:38.560 I'll explain more in a second, but First, let's take 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:50.000 a quick break to thank our sponsor, Dafne la Prince Ringett. 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:53.280 And I know I'm mispronouncing your name, and I do apologize. 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:57.320 But Dafne wrote a great piece and Wired recently in 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:02.200 September two. It's titled sleep Tech is Booming, but It's 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:06.440 getting weirder and dodgier, and I recommend you check out 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:10.160 that article and it Daphne quotes Lloyd Price, who is 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:13.960 a co founder of a company called Zesti. Price said, 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.440 the industry as a whole is now in what we 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:23.040 call the plateau of productivity within the sleep tech hype cycle. Now, 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:26.680 the hype cycle is a concept from research firm Gardner, 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:30.680 and it describes the life cycle of a technology, not 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:35.440 just sleep tech, but every technology as it goes from 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:40.240 the initial concept all the way up to widespread mainstream adoption, 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:43.240 assuming it makes it that far. The typical chart for 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:47.400 the hype cycle looks like a really big hill on 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:50.080 a roller coaster ride that then goes into a deep 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:55.440 dip and then a gradual climb afterward. And it involves 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:59.400 things like your expectation and your adoption levels. So it 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:03.240 all starts the innovation trigger or the technological breakthrough that 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:07.520 gets things started. This would be the initial announcement of 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.880 something really cool and groundbreaking. At this stage, there may 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:15.720 not be anything that a consumer can get their hands on. 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:18.960 It may all be in the prototype or conceptual stage, 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:23.240 and people start hearing about and they get interested in it. 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:28.280 That leads into the peak of inflated expectations. This is 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:30.760 the high point on that roller coaster hill that I 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.880 was talking about. It's typically a pretty sharp, steep hill, 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:38.840 and this is where publicity gets people really really excited 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.760 for this technology. Everyone is at a fever pitch. They 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:46.960 think this technology has the potential to change everything. There 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.520 may not be an actual product out there, or maybe 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:54.160 there's only a very limited number and they can only 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:58.120 be adopted by like bleeding edge technology fans who have 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:01.000 a lot of in home that they can use to 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:05.320 buy this kind of stuff. But typically it doesn't it's 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:08.160 not widely available enough for for the average person to 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:13.840 get experience with it. Next, after the peak of inflated 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:18.720 expectations comes the trough of disillusionment. This is that dip 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:21.480 I was talking about, a low point in the life cycle. 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:25.160 This happens when people realize that the thing they got 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:29.040 the actual product they were able to buy doesn't meet 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:33.840 those high expectations they had. Now, high expectations can come 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:37.000 from multiple sources. They can come from pr folks who 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:40.040 are really promoting the heck out of a technology. So 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:43.400 it could be a misrepresentation of the tech, or it 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:45.720 could be a misinterpretation on the part of the consumer. 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:49.800 It's not necessarily the fault of publicists, although they do 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:55.560 tend to really tout the the positives of technology. I mean, 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:59.360 their job is to sell stuff. So I'm reminded of 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:02.360 virtual reality, both when it had its initial run in 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.160 the ninety nineties and the more recent attempts with stuff 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:08.239 like the Oculus and the Vive products. Those products are 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.639 still around, but I say that they failed to deliver 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:14.440 upon some of the unrealistic expectations that we had built 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:16.840 up around them, and as a result, they had to 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:22.040 go through this trough period, the trough of disillusionment. Next 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:25.000 would be the slope of enlightenment. That's when we start 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:28.520 to see implementations of this technology that actually makes sense 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:32.480 and they have real value. They may not remotely come 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:37.080 close to meeting the incredible expectations we had had previously, 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:40.199 but they show how the technology can be used in 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:44.560 a real practical value added way. Then we finally get 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:47.800 to the plateau of productivity. That's when we get into 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:52.000 mainstream adoption of that technology. It becomes a practical part 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.600 of other technologies. Sometimes sometimes it just becomes a feature 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:59.520 on an existing product as opposed to a standalone thing, 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:02.960 and that is where sleep technology is now. According to 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:06.520 Lloyd Price. Then again, he co founded a health company 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:10.600 that has an interest in sleep technology, so it probably 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:14.600 would be good news to such a company that we 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:19.719 have moved into this widespread mainstream adoption. It's hard to argue, though, 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:21.600 because sleep tech has found its way into lots of 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:25.840 different products. Many of the early examples of sleep tech, 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:28.760 many of the ones that are still around now, are 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:33.679 subsets of a trend called the quantified self. This was 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:36.919 the trend that spawned all sorts of stuff like activity trackers, 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:41.720 sleep trackers, technology that would give you data on a 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:45.840 day to day basis about your activities. It's all about, uh, 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:50.320 giving you data about your everyday life. The quantified self 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:52.520 started off as a movement back in two thousand seven, 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:55.879 and it was it was more or less founded by 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:58.359 a couple of guys named Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly, 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:01.920 both of whom worked for Wired magazine, who really championed 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.760 this concept. And it's all about using technology to track 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:08.120 our personal activities, are day to day behaviors, and then 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:11.679 give us data about that so that we can, prefer 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.560 ideally use it in some way that benefits us, right 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:16.679 that we can get a better understanding of who we 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:20.200 are and what we do, and maybe fine tune our 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.920 behavior so that we're living our best lives. The quantified 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.879 self can involve using technology to gather information all by itself, 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:30.760 such as a pedometer, like we just wear the pardometer 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.480 and it counts the steps and it might send that 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:37.119 data somewhere. Or it can also include technology that requires 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:40.120 some sort of additional human input, like a calorie tracking 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:43.240 app that would tell you how many calories you've consumed 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:46.000 versus burned in a day. But in order to do that, 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:48.159 you have to actually tell the app what you ate, 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:51.160 so it can estimate the number of calories you've consumed, 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:55.920 and maybe it consults some other sensors like a pedometer 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:59.960 to estimate how many calories you have burned, and then 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.520 it can give you the full information afterward. Sleep trackers 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:06.800 fall into this category of the quantified self technology. These 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:10.520 are devices they're supposed to monitor your sleep patterns and 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.720 send that data to you in some useful way. So 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.800 how do sleep trackers work well, It kind of depends 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.480 on the technology. There are a few different approaches, but 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:25.040 the first level of sleep tracking depends heavily on accelerometers 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:30.680 that obviously measures acceleration. This method of assessing sleep predates 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:36.400 activity trackers and sleep trackers. It's called actography, and there 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:40.760 are specialized pieces of equipment called actographs, and they they 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:43.720 typically look like a watch. You would wear an actograph 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:46.680 on the risk of your non dominant hand in your 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:51.360 typical sleep study. The actograph can register and record movements. 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.480 So it's essentially the same thing as activity trackers and 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.440 fitbit trackers. But it's been around for a long time 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:01.120 and it was largely just the domain of medical establishment, 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:04.159 not not something you would go out and buy. The 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:07.640 data that would be gathered from these sleep sessions would 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:12.000 be analyzed to estimate sleep parameters and tell the sleep 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:16.360 specialists how well or poorly you slept in a given night. 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:19.520 And sleep specialists have been using act graphs for several 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:22.560 years and it's one of the preferred methods for measuring 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:26.000 sleep activity because it allows the user to sleep in 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:29.760 their own preferred space, like their own bed, rather than 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:32.159 having to try and sleep in a lab setting. It 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:37.560 is not the most accurate method of measuring sleep activity, 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:41.760 but it's less invasive than the more accurate approaches. According 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:46.400 to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, actography has been 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:50.560 well validated for the estimation of nighttime sleep parameters across 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:53.760 age groups, but the validity of the estimation of sleep 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:58.399 on set latency and daytime sleeping is limited. Clinical guidelines 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:02.159 and research suggests that risk actography is particularly useful in 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:05.680 the documentation of sleep patterns prior to a multiple sleep 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:10.240 latency test, in the evaluation of circadian rhythm sleep disorders 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:14.280 to evaluate treatment outcomes, and as an adjunct to home 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:18.560 monitoring of sleep disordered Breathing actography has also been well 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:21.719 studied in the evaluation of sleep in the context of 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:26.480 depression and dementia. Now, it is important to remember that 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:30.840 this is within the context of sleep specialists working with patients. 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:35.200 The trackers we tend to rely upon today may give 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:37.720 us information about our sleep activity, but it's not a 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:41.920 substitute for a medical professional if there's something wrong going on, 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:43.959 but it might be a way to alert us that 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:48.240 there's something we should have checked out. Also, the more 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:52.119 disrupted your sleep is, the more accurate actography can be 0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:55.880 in telling you what is actually going on. Now, there's 0:22:55.880 --> 0:22:59.560 another side to sleep trackers that is also problematic, and 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:02.880 that's anxiety some people feel when they're trying to beat 0:23:02.880 --> 0:23:07.439 their high score. As it were. So you typically get 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:10.840 your sleep feedback data fed to you in some way 0:23:10.960 --> 0:23:16.240 that's related to a grade, and people like getting good 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:19.640 grades and they hate getting bad grades, and they start 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:22.040 seeing that they have mediocre grades and they think, well, 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:24.680 I want to get that score up. That competitive nature 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:28.240 starts to come through. But this actually can start to 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:32.280 create anxiety and stress. You're stressing out about getting a 0:23:32.320 --> 0:23:35.480 better grade in sleep. There's actually a name for this. 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:41.400 It is orthosomnia. Now, literally that word would mean correct sleep, 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:44.159 but it's being used to describe people who have an 0:23:44.240 --> 0:23:48.320 unhealthy fixation on achieving that perfect night's sleep to beat 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:52.040 last night's score. Oh, it's so important to me. And 0:23:52.119 --> 0:23:55.120 then ironically that can actually prevent you from getting even 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:58.200 a good night's sleep, let alone the perfect night's sleep, 0:23:58.960 --> 0:24:02.760 And perhaps the more ironic thing is that these users 0:24:02.840 --> 0:24:07.080 could be worried about data that isn't even accurately reflecting 0:24:07.119 --> 0:24:09.760 their sleep to begin with. They could be looking at 0:24:09.800 --> 0:24:12.360 a grade and thinking I can do better than that, 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:15.640 without knowing that they already have done better than that. 0:24:15.840 --> 0:24:18.520 Fitness trackers that claim to tell you how long you 0:24:18.640 --> 0:24:22.280 spent during each stage of sleep in that cycle I 0:24:22.320 --> 0:24:25.879