The Dream Team| Sleep Shift Scheduling Tool
Sleep Shift Scheduling Tool
Lights Out
Summary
Lights Out enables astronauts and users to take full control of the quality of their sleep. By applying circadian rhythm research findings the tool will be able to provide accurate sleep monitoring by taking in consideration sleep schedules, fitness regimens and food intake.
How We Addressed This Challenge
The Lights Out tool is designed as an interactive sleep tracking and monitoring application to be used through wearable and computer based technologies. This tool will allow astronauts to input their sleeping schedules in combination with diet and exercise information, therefore providing a complete overall picture of their quality of sleep.
Why is consistent sleep important?
If not getting enough sleep is a regular part of a regular routine, according to the CDC, health risks include an increased risk for obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, poor mental health, and even early death.
Even one night of short sleep can affect you the next day.
What is entrainment of Circadian Rhythms and how it might impact sleep?
Let us start with Circadian Rhythms, Sleep and Wakefulness.
Circadian rhythms describe the patterns of body functions that follow a nearly 24-hour cycle. These include:
- Body temperature
- Hormone fluctuations
- The timing of sleep and wakefulness
Built into the genetics of every cell in the body is a clock that times internal processes to the external environment. This internal clock may not precisely reflect the length of the geological day. In other words, our internal clocks are off.
Instead of running at 24 hours, most of our internal clocks are operating at a slightly longer interval.
The circadian rhythm profoundly influences the desire for sleep and works as an alerting signal to sustain wakefulness. The innate difference in timing with a clock that runs long would cause an individual to want to stay up a little later each night and wake a little later each morning. Something is needed to reset this tendency, and that’s where entrainment comes in.
Entrainment is the synchronization or alignment of the internal biological clock rhythm, including its phase and period, to external time cues, such as the natural dark-light cycle. In simpler words, it is the way that our internal clocks are reset to reflect the natural periods of the day and night that occur in our environment.
It can impact the overall timing of sleep and wakefulness. It may also have a role in limiting the overall length of sleep episodes.
Light is the key. Entrainment occurs most often through light exposure affecting the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the brain. Upon awakening, morning sunlight can have a profound impact to begin the process of sustained wakefulness and end the period of sleep.
What can disrupt your Circadian Rhythm?
Disruptions to circadian rhythm can occur over the short or long term. Experts have identified a number of types of circadian rhythm sleep-wake (CRSWD) based on their characteristics and causes.
- Jet Lag Disorder
- Shift Work Disorder
- Advanced Sleep Phase Disorder
- Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder
- Non-24 Hour Sleep Wake Disorder
- Irregular Sleep-Wake Rhythm Disorder
How to maintain a healthy Circadian Rhythm?
While we don’t have full control over our circadian rhythm, they are healthy sleep tips that can be taken to try to better entrain our 24-hour sleep cycles.
- Seek out sun: Exposure to natural light, especially early in the days, helps reinforce the strongest circadian cue.
- Follow a consistent sleep schedule: Varying your bedtime or morning wake-up time can hinder your body’s ability to adjust to a stable circadian rhythm.
- Get daily exercise: Activity during the day can support your internal clock and help make it easier to fall asleep at night.
- Avoid caffeine: Stimulants like caffeine can keep you awake and throw off the natural balance between sleep and wakefulness.
- Limit light before bed: Artificial light exposure at night can interfere with circadian rhythm. Experts advise dimming the lights and putting down electronic devices in the lead-up to bedtime.
- Keep naps short and early in the afternoon: Late and long naps can push back your bedtime and throw your sleep schedule off-kilter.
How does diet affect your sleep?
To get your body to its prime operating level, you need to balance your exercise, food, and sleep schedule. Together, these three pillars create the foundation for long-term health and well-being.
Research shows that when sleep-deprived, you’re more likely to consume foods high in calories, fat and sugar.
A sleep-promoting diet is varied and rich in fruits and vegetables and whole grains, lean proteins, and dairy.
Foods that can interfere with sleep include high-sugar, high carbohydrate, heavily processed foods. Eating sugary foods throughout the day can cause pronounced changes to blood sugar, which can bring on feelings of fatigue that can alter your daily routine and your sleep patterns at night. Eating heavy meals close to bedtime interferes with the body’s process of winding down for sleep.
You do want to drink as much water as you can. Staying hydrated throughout the day promotes alertness and focus, and can help minimize shifts in energy levels. Dehydration leads to feeling sluggish and tired, which can eventually disrupt sleep patterns.
*References listed below
How We Developed This Project
What inspired your team to choose this challenge?
Sleep has been tied to health as far as a general understanding is concerned. After researching more about what happens during sleep and what functions each cycle serves, we became passionate about ensuring proper sleep is available, especially for those, such as astronauts, where use of highly cognitive functions is paramount.
What was your approach to developing this project?
This is the approach our team took to tackle this challenge:
- Understand the challenge and break it down into chunks
- Identify one issue and fully commit to addressing it
- Research, research, and research
- Transform our research from raw data to actionable information
- Iterate and create
- Have a lot of fun along the way!
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
How did you use Space Agency data in your project?
We reviewed the study Performance and Sleep Consequences of Slam Shifts in Schedule (Monk), from which we were unable to derive conclusive data in designing our tool, therefore, we also used external data resources to supplement value in our research & tool creation.
Project Demo
What does our tool do?
This is where the Lights Out application comes into play. Astronauts will input their sleep schedule and work shift so the app can then know when to alert them to wind down for bed, set an alarm, and update a dashboard of everyone’s schedule that can be viewed by all team members.
This will help the team work together for not only their work shifts but to also hold each other accountable.
There are two aspects to how Lights Out works: a computer app and watch app.
The computer app is where users will input upcoming schedules. It’ll then provide adjustments as needed should the schedules change - this includes helping a user shift their sleep cycle to a new schedule.
In order to optimally adjust to a new sleep schedule, it’ll help users plan ahead and move it up or back in 15-minute increments in the necessary amount of time leading up to the new shift. This heuristic practice is what is currently recommended. The tool can be patched or updated should better practices be officially recommended.
The watch application will need to be on a tool that can monitor biometrics and current sleep/activity. It will display a home screen with the date, time and the current schedule. Users will then be able to swipe to other screens that include a stats center and notification center.
The Stats Center will display the average hours of sleep, the regularity of those hours and the average sleeping heart rate. Heart rate is an important indicator on overall health.
The Sleep Summary page will break down the previous night into the hours awake, in light sleep, in deep sleep, and in REM sleep.
These considerations are important because during light sleep, the body processes memories and emotions, and metabolism regulates itself. This is the majority of the night.
Deep sleep is when the body secretes growth hormone, which is associated with cellular rebuilding and repair.
These two stages then lead up to REM sleep about 90 minutes in. This is when the brain is working on emotion and memory regulation. It’s also the peak of protein synthesis at the cellular level, which keeps many processes in the body working properly.
While these cycles will vary from person to person naturally, being able to monitor them is paramount to ensuring the user is properly sleeping.
The Lights Out tool will also be able to integrate via API’s to the fitness and nutrition apps currently used by users.
How will our Sleep Shift tool benefit astronauts and other industries to better track and monitor their sleep schedules?
Lights Out provides alerts for factors that contribute to or hinder adequate sleep, such as exercise, light exposure, caffeine intake, and medication, in order for the user to be informed when to limit consumption of substances or participation in activities.
Following these prescribed alerts helps the user ensure higher sleep quality, which is important in professions where insufficient rest poses on-the-job risks.
Further, Light Out tracks and reports sleep patterns and regularity of these patterns which allow users to get a quantitative summary of their sleep and to make decisions on necessary adjustments, such as decreasing caffeine intake or limiting naps. Once these adjustments are made, the user can then monitor subsequent changes to their sleep patterns as a result.
In addition, in having the feature where a supervisor can review the individual statistics of team members, there is a collaborative approach in ensuring adjustments are made in order to benefit and optimize performance and schedules as a whole.
Data & Resources
Brandon Peters, MD. “How Entrainment of Circadian Rhythms Can Help Sleep and Ease Insomnia.” Verywell Health, 6 Feb. 2020, www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-entrainment-of-circadian-rhythms-in-sleep-3014883.
CDC. “Are You Getting Enough Sleep?” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 20 Mar. 2020, www.cdc.gov/sleep/features/getting-enough-sleep.html.
Monk, Timothy, and Chowdhury A. Abdul. “LSDA: Experiment - NNJ04HF76G.” NASA, NASA, 15 July 2004, lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/Experiment/exper/1234.
National Sleep Foundation. “The Secret to Resetting Your Sleep Routine When Your Work Hours Change.” Sleep Foundation, 28 July 2020, www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/working-new-hours-how-reset-your-sleep-routine.
SleepScore Labs TM. “Diet and Sleep: How Diet Affects Your Sleep [What You Need To Know].” SleepScore, 23 Sept. 2020, www.sleepscore.com/eat-well-sleep-well-how-diet-affects-your-sleep/.
Suni, Eric, and Alex Dimitriu. “What Is Circadian Rhythm?” Sleep Foundation, 25 Sept. 2020, www.sleepfoundation.org/circadian-rhythm.