The body is increasingly a central subject of HCI research and current technological development. This is apparent in the expansion of body trackers, such as the adaption of smartwatches and the increasing use of fitness trackers. This is largely driven by a move of giving users higher control over their health and well-being through cheap, ubiquitous self-tracking. Increasingly this includes the tracking and evaluation of sleep.
Yet, development has focused on traditional 8 hours-per-night schedules – overlooking the varied nature of people’s sleep. Such as sleep, much of our body practices are not solely a matter of health – but connected to the assemblages that is the complicated intricacies of everyday life.
This project aims to treat people as ’expert users’ of their own life. To carefully challenge the scope and perspective of existing technology, I study how people hack and shift their sleep to make their lives work. In the process of speculative sketching, prototyping, and participatory design, this work explores the design space of technology for changing body rhythms and design new interactions around body and life-tracking technology that increases the agency of the user.
