Bedtime Pals: A Deployment Study of Sleep Management Technology for Families With Young Children

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Sleep has been studied as an individual activity, with the interconnected behaviors among family members being rarely considered. In this study, by incorporating the identified themes from the previous phase, we designed and tested two types of family-based sleep management systems: Bedtime Pal and Caring Heart. These systems redistributed sleep-relevant tasks among family members, so that they would have the chance to reflect on the difficulties and values involved in those tasks. We deployed the two prototypes and performed an in-the-wild study with 12 families in their homes. This study empirically revealed the importance of considering social dynamics as a design factor for family sleep management technologies. Design implications for sleep management technologies are discussed.