I assume that, sadly, most of us know an individual that suffers from the poignant, incurable condition that is called dementia. Did you know that, according to Alzheimer’s Disease International, every three seconds someone somewhere in the world is diagnosed with any form related to dementia? It is expected that by 2030 75 million people will suffer from this condition. At the moment, the cost levels of care and therapy together are estimated at $818 billion, however, if no successful treatment or solution is found, the sum is expected to increase heavily taking into account the expected increase in dementia patients.

What if we can try to take away symptoms of dementia patients like stress, anxiety and even depression by applying a tool that distracts them by providing virtual reality experiences that present calming scenes. Accordingly, a young UK healthcare startup, Virtue, uses VR as a memory portal in the process of reminiscence therapy. Reminiscence therapy involves discussions of past events and experiences supported by memory triggers such as household items as photographs, videos and sound recordings. Moreover, it is already one of the most popular methods in professional dementia care and has proven to be beneficial to the mental health of elder people. Through Virtue’s application, LookBack VR, they are able to allow dementia patients to relive their youthful memories from historical events from 1940 to 1970. This includes videos of special landmarks or scenes and even personal experiences. For instance, Viewers can choose to experience that day at the beach in 1970. They can even choose to live in a 1930s styled house and walk from their to the busstop in front of their house. Their caregivers can accompany them as they can see their headset view on a tablet or iPad, along with multiple question to encourage a relevant conversation about that  particular event.

This technology solves offers better quality of life for dementia patients and their loved ones. As this application provides low-key, affordable and accessible method of providing reminiscence therapy at dementia patients’ homes, facing dementia will become a better bearable and less isolated experience.

Sources:
– https://www.wired.co.uk/article/virtual-reality-dementia-technology
– https://insights.samsung.com/2018/03/13/virtual-reality-delivers-real-world-benefits-to-dementia-patients/
– https://thehealthhorizon.com/showcases/innovations/9be733a2-b442-4dc8-916b-8eb02c12cd1f
– Ponnusamy Subramaniam & Bob Woods (2012) The impact of individual reminiscence therapy for people with dementia: systematic review, Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 12:5, 545-555,
– https://supercarers.com/blog/reminiscence-therapy-for-dementia/

It was last week that I read about a research on sleeping problems among university students. It proved that almost 60% of all students suffer from poor sleeping quality. Insomnia was found to have a huge impact on the students’ daily life and even affect their grade point average (Schlarb et al., 2017).

As I was quite shocked about this, I started googling for existing inventions that could possibly solve sleeping issues and found these products that can analyse your sleeping patterns during the night. Take Withings, a Nokia company that launched this sleep tracking mat. This mat can be placed under your mattress and will track your heart rate, measure your perspiration levels, detect snoring sounds and monitor your sleep cycles during the period you are (trying to be) asleep.

Another interesting aspect about the Withings sleep tracker is that it has developed into an Internet of Things device by being integrated with IFTTT – a free platform that allows you to connect all of your apps and devices to each other (IFTTT, 2018).In case of the Withings Sleep tracker, IFTTT allows you to not only connect your health app to the sleep tracker, it enables you to improve your sleeping environment by integrating it to your light dimmers and thermostat.

Why would you do this? Well, if you are concerned about your health and suffer from fatigue issues or other sleeping disorders than this could be a perfect way for you to improve your overall health. Knowing more about your sleeping habits can help you make more deliberate decisions regarding your daily life, which in turn can improve your night’s rest. The overall idea of these kind of products is that with extra information about your sleeping patterns and the quality of your sleep, you can begin to make changes in your daily lifestyle in order to improve it, which should have a positive effect on both your mental and physical well-being (Digital trends, 2018).

As I would definitely try this, I’m curious if there’s any of you who can relate to this and perhaps already tried a device like the Withings sleep tracker.

Sources:

• https://www.digitaltrends.com/home/best-sleep-trackers/
• Schlarb, A. A., Friedrich, A., & Claßen, M. (2017). Sleep problems in university students – an intervention. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 13, 1989–2001. http://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S142067