Eve: A Combined Physical-Digital Interface For Insomnia Sleep Diary

Insomnia is a medical condition with high prevalence and negative impact on quality of life. As a part of various therapies, sleep diaries are used as a tool for diagnosis and patient self-management. Traditional diaries are essentially paper forms, which are cumbersome, error-prone and time-consuming. Application (app) based diaries have been proposed, but they are screen based and have their disadvantages. We report on the design of EVE, an alternative type of sleep diary. The design is based on a combined physical-digital interface. Three prototypes have been built, and two of which (PINS and RING DIAL) have been tested in a preliminary user test. PINS came out on top in the subjective preference survey between two of the prototypes. Participants perceived both prototypes as enjoyable and easy ways to log essential sleep time. Our design suggests this combined interface has the potential to promote patients to provide reliable insomnia sleep diaries.