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- Creators: Whisner, Corrie
- Creators: Byrne, Jared
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Sleep is imperative for health and wellness with direct impacts on brain function, physiology, emotional well-being, performance and safety when compromised. Adolescents and young adults are increasingly affected by factors affecting the maintenance of regular sleep schedules. College and university students are a potentially vulnerable population to sleep deprivation and sleep insufficiency. Possible factors that could contribute to poor sleep hygiene include, but are not limited to, academic pressures, social activities, and increased screen time. Arguably, students are still experiencing bone mineralization, until the age of 30 or even 40 years old, which makes it more important to understand the effects that altered sleep patterns could have on continued development of bone health. It is our understanding that to date, studies assessing the risk of sleep insufficiency on bone mineral density in college students have not been conducted. We hypothesized that college-aged students, between the ages of 18-25 years, with shorter sleep durations, greater sleep schedule variability, and poorer sleep environments will have significantly lower bone mineral density. ActiGraph monitoring, via a wrist ActiWatch was used to quantitatively measure sleep habits for up to 7 consecutive days. During the week-long study participants also captured their self-reported sleep data through the use of a sleep diary. Participants were measured one time within the study for bone mineral density of the lumbar spine and total hip through a dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. This was a preliminary analysis of a larger cross-sectional analysis looked at 17 participants, of which there were 14 females and 3 males, (n=5, 1 and 11 Hispanic, Black and White, respectively). The mean age of participants was 20.8±1.7 y with an average BMI of 22.9±3.2 kg/m2. ActiWatch measurement data showed a mean daily sleep duration of participants to be 437.5 ± 43.1 (372.5 – 509.4) minutes. Mean sleep efficiency (minutes of sleep divided by minutes of time in bed) and mean number of awakenings were 87.4±4.3 (75.4-93.4) minutes and 32.1±6.4 (22.3-42.7) awakenings, respectively. The median time for wake after sleep onset (WASO) was 34.5±10.5 (18.3-67.4) minutes. The mean bone mineral density (BMD) for the hips was 1.06±0.14 (0.81-1.28) g/cm2 with a mean BMD of the lumbar spine being 1.24±0.12 (0.92-1.43) g/cm2. Age-matched Z-scores of the hips was 0.31±0.96 (-1.6-2.1) and lumbar spine was 0.53 (IQR: 0.13, 0.98; -2.25-1.55). Neither sleep duration nor sleep efficiency was significantly correlated to BMD of either locations. While WASO was positively associated with hip and spine BMD, this value was not statistically significant in this population. Overall, associations between sleep and BMD of the femur and spine were not seen in this cohort. Further work utilizing a larger cohort will allow for control of covariates while looking for potential associations between bone health, sleep duration and efficiency.
Through the use of Arizona State University’s Founders Lab, our group of four Barrett, the Honors College Students completed a research thesis regarding the interest of college students in a sleep light technology product. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) pioneered a sleep light technology with the ability to regulate melatonin production and circadian rhythm, resulting in an improvement of sleep quality. The technology was originally invented for astronauts to improve their sleep while in space on a spacecraft. Utilizing this technology, our group performed extensive market research with the intention of determining if college students would be interested in purchasing a consumer product incorporating the sleep light technology. We created a brand called Rhythm Illumination and began by building a website and brand guide. Next, we utilized Google Forms to generate responses to a variety of questions regarding current sleep habits, current sleep problems, and whether or not there was interest in a product like this. After determining that college students have room for sleep quality improvement and there is interest in this kind of product, we worked towards our goal of gaining traction for the product. We decided to utilize both Google Analytics results and a Zoom event’s attendance as proof of interest in our product. Google Analytics revealed over one hundred unique users on our Rhythm Illumination website. We also had eleven event attendees. Between these two tools, our team was able to conclude that there is interest among college students for a consumer product utilizing NASA’s sleep light technology.
The purpose of this thesis study was to market a favorable solution to reduce stress levels and improve the quality of sleep for young adults by using a piece of technology developed by NASA. This technology was a lighting system initially designed to help astronauts regulate their circadian rhythms in space, and our goal was to find a suitable market for this type of product. Our team wanted to focus on college students because they often suffer from high anxiety and stress levels, which affects their overall productiveness in study rooms and dorms. After conducting research and interviewing students on the ASU campus, we wanted to market a solution that incorporates the same technology, but is also able to adjust lighting intensity and color. Taking this solution, our group setup demonstration rooms in Noble Library to collect data from students who would be interested in seeing more of this product on campus. Additionally, a Facebook advertisement campaign was launched to promote our website and gain any other feedback. Ultimately, these two methods of outreach proved to be a huge success, and there was a significant amount of interest in this product, validating that there is a potential market.