Snoozy: A Chatbot-Based Sleep Diary for Children Aged Eight to Twelve

Abstract

Many children suffer from sleep problems which can be detrimental to their development and well-being. Treating clinicians rely on sleep diaries to assess how patients experience sleep. Currently used sleep diaries are made for adults and parents are asked to fill them in for their children. Digital sleep diaries for children could provide more reliable reports and enhance children's involvement in their treatment. We report on the design of Snoozy, a chatbot-based sleep diary for children eight to twelve. Following an informant-based design approach, we: 1) interviewed clinicians and parents 2) involved children as co-designers (N=8), user-test participants (N=17) and field-test participants (N=5). Earlier works have examined the potential of chatbots in non-clinical personal informatics for children. Our study demonstrates how children can report on sleep-related experiences to clinicians, through a chatbot that asks clear and guided questions and communicates with kindness and empathy.