INSOMBUD
Sleep is Overrated Anyways
Tell ALL your worries to your very own INSOMBUD!
Ever wanted to not sleep and reconsider all your worries you ever had in your life in ONE single night? Introducing your very own INSOMBUD, the insomnia buddy!
This little friend is here for you through thick and thin! Worried about that meeting next week that will see if you get that promotion you desperately need? Tell it to INSOMBUD, and he will listen to you and list off ALL POSSIBLE BAD THINGS that could happen!
Equipped with one terabyte of storage, you can tell INSOMBUD as many things as you possibly want. Tell him your deepest worries and regrets, and he will tell you why you SHOULD indeed regret that one time you tripped during a dancing competition when you were six years old!
He has his own internal clock with a light and sound sensor! So, if you put him in your room, he will know when you are trying to sleep and will start listing off all the things you should worry about! To bring that white noise too, he will rustle and move in his very own too-loud bed so that you are sure to know he is there, awake with you.
[see above for a early concept demonstration of INSOMBUD]
My thinking behind Insombud
I chose Alicia's idea about how a robot could have insomnia, a process when one (humans and animals alike) cannot fall asleep. This inspired me because I experienced moments when I could not sleep, it would be interesting and fun to reflect this feeling on a robot. From my understanding, insomnia can occur due to overthinking, perhaps of past mistakes or worries for the future. And this translates to staying awake with these thoughts and becoming increasingly tired. Robots don't have this problem (unless programmed to, I suppose) because they are tasked to do what they have been programmed to do without any worries about the past or future, and they charge up when they are low on battery.
While Alicia seemed to focus on the kinder version of this bot in trying to help people get over insomnia, I want to take the completely opposite approach. This is why I propose a robot that focuses on this overthinking aspect of insomnia and, instead of helping a person with insomnia, makes it worse. To show off my idea, I decided to go with an exaggerated advertisement because I thought that it had more impact and clearly explained the concept of insomnia.
What would be learnt from this work? It could point out that perhaps it is irrational to start overthinking about all sorts of things. Alicia pointed out how the bot could mimic behaviours when a person cannot fall asleep, and I believe some of these behaviours may make falling asleep harder. Therefore, the bot would demonstrate exactly what not to do if one wants to fall asleep.
Realistic images from pexels