DreamCatcher: Exploring How Parents and School-Age Children Can Track and Review Sleep Information Together

Parents and their school-age children can impact one another's sleep. Most sleep-tracking tools, however, are designed for adults and make it difficult for parents and children to track together. To examine how to design a family-centered sleep tracking tool, we designed DreamCatcher. DreamCatcher is an in-home, interactive, shared display that aggregates data from wrist-worn sleep sensors and self-reported mood. We deployed DreamCatcher as a probe to examine the design space of tracking sleep as a family. Ten families participated in the study probe between 15 and 50 days. This study uses a family systems perspective to explore research questions regarding the feasibility of children actively tracking health data alongside their parents and the effects of tracking and sharing on family dynamics. Our results indicate that children can be active tracking contributors and that having parents and children track together encourages turn-taking and working together. However, there were also moments when family members, in particular parents, felt discomfort from sharing their sleep and mood with other family members. Our research contributes to a growing understanding of designing family-centered health-informatics tools to support the combined needs of parents and children.