What if...
It were possible to put on your 'sleeping cap' and drift off to a deep relaxing sleep? What if said cap had no consequences or side effects like those of modern sleep-aid drugs (including anesthetics) or the very common booze bottle? Why do this?
Because exhaustion has been demonstrated to be a major cause in traffic accidents, poor job performance, social dysfunction and a host of other consequences[1]. Insomnia and/or "restless sleep" happens for many reasons and consequently there are also many treatment therapies. However, as noted previously "sleep-aids" are the common approach to sleep induction. I suspect that a good part of sleep-aid use is because its "fast and easy".. I suppose that meditation or exercise are equally effective sleep inducing mechanisms, but they require both time and effort. What the objective is, then, is to develop and equally "quick n easy" sleep solution that replaces both over-the-counter and prespcription drugs.
"Restful" sleep has been identified as that portion the sleep cycle known as Delta wave sleep where the brain is at itsl lowest point of activity during sleep [2]. Sleeplessnes or non restful sleep can be due to numerous things but most treatments are very uncomfortable for the user (e.g CPAP) or have many undesireable side effects (drugs). The device in question induces sleep by stimulating the brain electronically, and in fact, had already been studied over 40 years ago [3] but for reasons unclear to me, never really gathered the momentum necessary to become a commercial product.
I suspect a couple of reasons: First, technical issues. Technology of 40 years ago may have not have allowed practical application of the technology outside of a clinical setting, in addition, the state of the body of knowledge may not have been sufficient, at the time, to deliver a product that was thoroughly safety tested. Secondly, social unawareness of the linkages between insomnia, exhaustion, performance, and morbidity issues. That is, whereas today we know that exhaustion (from insomnia or restless sleep) is a the root of many accidents, back then these linkages were not so clear. Therefore insomnia was understood in the more classical sense and wasnt reall the subject of public discourse. That brings ut to today...
Whare trying to become a 'natural' and 'green' society. That means many things,but one among them is the desire to improve our lives in more natural ways. I extend this concept by interpreting 'natural' as the desire to live in a less chemically dependent world. With that, I would want to revive research in electronarcosis and its potential consequent products. Because there is precedent research and because science can today address this topic so much more broadly, I suspect that both Delphi and NGT methods of eliciting new ideas and approaches to this topic. Not to mention, both the Delphi method and NGT are already heavily used approaches in the field of medical sciences. In fact, I would see an approach whereby NGT efforts are subsequently supported by Delphi pannels that allow the introduction of other contexts into the main research question. The idea here is to be able to capture the 'breadth a depth' of my propsed device so that it does, in fact, meet its proposed goals of "restful sleep induction without noxious side effects"
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[1] Naitoh,P., Kelly,T.L. & Englund, C. (1991) lHealth Effects of Sleep Deprivation,
NAVAL HEALTH RESEARCH CENTER SAN DIEGO CA,http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA249653
[2] Stbaus, B., Elkind, A. & Bodian, C. (1964) Electrical Induction of Sleep, The American Journal of the Medical Sciences (248)5 514-520
[3] Magora, F., Beller, A., Aladjemoff, L., Magora, A. & Tannebaumm, J. (1965) Observations on electrically induced sleep in man, British Journal of Anesthesia (37) 480
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