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Sleepless Society (2017)

Over time, views on sleep have changed drastically, with Margaret Thatcher famously only needing four hours per night. Polyphasic sleep, however, refers to sleeping multiple times within a 24 hour period, breaking up your resting time into much shorter naps. By limiting the amount of time that you are asleep for, you can limit which sleep phase you go into, REM being optimal for being productive once you reawaken. Uberman sleep is one example of this, where six naps are taken throughout the day at equidistant intervals.  

 

The Micro Life Pause is a proposed solution to our ever more demanding workdays under capitalism. This medical kit contains caffeine pills, which are taken as part of each Uberman sleep break, six times a day. Once the case is open, the user is prompted by accurately timed lights and buzzers, indicating when to inflate the pillow and when to begin the nap. The caffeine takes 45 minutes to fully take effect within your system, at which point the alarm is programmed to awaken you and, combined with the caffeine, bring you back to peak productivity after your break. By using this sleep kit, you eliminate the need to leave your workplace, giving you maximum time to carry out the more important tasks, like making money. The word sleep is absent in the name of the product altogether, changing the experience to merely a brief pause in waking functionality.

 

Elsewhere within this sleepless society, you will notice jewellery pieces that accentuate the bags under the wearer's eyes. The more physically noticeable your tiredness is the clearer your value as a member of society. The fashion industry follows this, making dark circles a key accessory.

Project contributors: Elena Board, Lily Couchman, Maja Nordblom. 

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