Wander: A breath-control audio game to support sound sleep

Abstract

Overuse of mobile phones pre-sleep is one of the main factors that cause sleep disorders. Although medical research proves that excessive blue light from the smartphone leads to a decrease in sleepiness, the widespread use of cell phones makes it difficult for people to disconnect from them entirely before bedtime. Regarding this dilemma, we explore the potential of treating mobile phones as sleep helpers. In this paper, we proposed a novel interaction mode and designed a breath-control audio game, which guides mobile users to reduce the use of smartphones and take breathing exercises that improve sleep quality near bedtime based on gamification theory. Our game's metaphor promotes smartphone users to beware that excessive use of mobile phones before bedtime will adversely affect sleep, demonstrating the opportunities of utilizing smartphones to support sound sleep. Finally, through our practice, we show that gamification is a potential method to cultivate healthy habits and can be generalized to the formation of other ones in the future.