Towards Understanding the Design of Positive Pre-Sleep Through a Neurofeedback Artistic Experience

This article summarizes a paper authored by Nathan Semertzidis, Betty Sargeant, Justin Dwyer, Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller, and Fabio Zambetta. This paper was presented at the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2019), 7th of May 2019 at 11:00 to 11:20 in the session “Enabling Reflection”.

The problem of inefficient or insufficient sleep has been acknowledged as an increasingly prevalent global health concern. Prior research has attributed much of this trend to technology use before sleep, prompting experts to advise the reduction of screen time before bed. Yet with the growing omnipresence of our electronic devices, this is becoming ever more difficult. In contrast, we argue that technology holds the potential to promote sleep by facilitating psychological states predictive of a good night’s sleep (positive pre sleep states). We explore this potential through the study of our system, “Inter-Dream”, a multi-sensory interactive artistic experience driven by neurofeedback.

INTER-DREAM AND THE STUDY OF PRE-SLEEP

Inter-Dream consists of several components, these being:

· An interactive bed that can provide vibratory stimulation and be positioned and at the discretion of the artist operating the installation.

· An EEG headset which collects electrophysiological data from the participants brain dissipated throughout the scalp, transformed into frequency bandwidths via Fast Fourier Transforms.

· Visuals projected into both a VR headset worn by the participant, and around the room. The visuals are procedurally generated in real time in response to the EEG data provided by the participant.

· A calming ambient score composed by the artists.

Inter-Dream was originally designed by its artists with the intention of producing an interactive public art instillation which explored the speculative-future concept of interpersonally sharing dreams. In appreciating the neurofeedback properties of the system, the researchers in turn sought to explore how this system may alternatively be applied in the promotion of positive pre-sleep, bringing us to the present study.

Participants individually rested within Inter-Dream, for a period of 10 minutes. To assess the systems interaction with pre-sleep, its factors (arousal; and mood) were measured psychometrically before and after the use of the system. EEG data was also collected as supplement to psychometric data. Qualitative interviews were also employed to help identify why the system promoted (or didn’t promote) positive pre-sleep states.

RESULTS

Regarding the pre-sleep factors arousal and mood, we found that there was a significant decrease in cognitive arousal, negative emotion, and negative affect. However, there were no significant differences in scores of somatic arousal, and positive emotion and affect. In terms of arousal, this demonstrated that while the system illustrated a propensity to “calm” participants mentally, it wasn’t entirely able to do the same physically. Similarly, in terms of mood, the system illustrated a propensity to dispel negative emotions and affect, but not bolster positive ones. Furthermore, when considering this together with the descriptive analysis of EEG activity across our participants, a high frequency in the delta bandwidth relative to other bandwidths during the experience reinforced the notion that these changes in arousal and mood were complicit in promoting positive pre-sleep.

Finally, thematic analysis of participant interviews revealed the following themes:

1. Passivity and Self-Exploration. Through the participants narrative retelling of their experiences with Inter-Dream, an alternating disposition of passivity and exploration was revealed. Most commonly, participants described passivity when discussing their initial interactions with the system, followed by a notable shift toward playful self-exploration as participants became habituated to the system.

2. Mindfulness. Another prevalent theme was the description of cognitive states consistent with those of mindfulness. This was often voiced as a redirection of thought away from life stressors and toward the present experience as a result of the systems neurofeedback reactivity.

3. Restorative Restfulness. A small number of participant responses indicated experiences of restorative restfulness, describing feelings of rejuvenation after the experience akin to those experienced after a short power-nap.

4. Neurocentric Agency. There was an overwhelming focus on describing the connection between the visual imagery, and their brains activity, and a contrasting disconnect with other components. In addition, responses also demonstrated the participants saw this connection as a form of artistic or creative expression.

BRINGING IT TOGETHER

Taken together, our work highlighted the potential of neurofeedback technologies to facilitate creative expression and playful exploration as a potential pathway for future research in supporting sleep. Taking from this notion, we additionally devised a series of design strategies to assist in the design of future neurofeedback driven systems.

1. Facilitate Exploration. Participant responses demonstrated a disposition of curiosity toward the depth of exploration the system allowed. With this considered, we propose it would be in the interest of designers to expand on the level of variability and uniqueness that can be achieved with subsequent or prolonged use, to reward that exploration.

2. Promote Neurocentric Agency. Participants were more inclined to engage with and appreciate stimuli or components which they have agency over, voicing feelings of disconnect or disparity between the components of the system not responsive to their thought. We propose that the future design of multisensory neurofeedback driven systems should consider avoiding the inclusion of non-reactive elements as core components of the experience.

3. Facilitate Self-expression. Furthermore, this appreciation of agency was often paired with appraisals of artistic creativity toward the system. As such, we recommend the exploration of means in which users can interpersonally express and share their creativity generated by electrophysiological output. This could be further fostered by, for example, designing toward the integration of multiple users in a neurofeedback driven system, thereby providing a means for sharing and mutually appreciating the individuality of mind.

For more information, please considering reading our full paper.

Full Citation: Semertzidis, N. A., Sargeant, B., Dwyer, J., Mueller, F. F., & Zambetta, F. (2019, April). Towards Understanding the Design of Positive Pre-sleep Through a Neurofeedback Artistic Experience. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (p. 574). ACM.