Dreaming of 2053: Product design and the future of sleep

Commercial sleep products exhibit wide variety but share a common failing: they tend to frame sleep problems individually, ignoring the influence of systemic issues on human wellbeing. To discover whether speculative/critical design (SCD) might offer a more appropriate framing, we use the method of precedent analysis to assess nine examples of sleep related SCD practice. We apply Hale et al.’s socioecological model of sleep health to create a novel framework that classifies how products frame sleep problems and corresponding solutions. This reveals that SCD artefacts frequently recognise societal determinants in how they frame sleep, but their solution tend to focus on individual interventions. The paper questions whether SCD practitioners might benefit from adopting the concept of publics from political sociology to frame more effective solutions and mobilise action towards a more equitable sleep future. This paper presents an original synthesis of product design, sleep, sociology and politics.