Intel sponsored a study that suggests that we could use smartphones to extend our life span.
This particular example relates to healthy sleep: The researchers found that smartphones can make us aware of poor quality sleep, which is generally tied to cases of common cold or, in more pro-longed scenarios, premature death.
"People who get poor quality sleep have higher rates of cardiac disease," said Jared Bauer, a member of the research group at the University of Washington. Sleep is about as important as anything, but it's one of the few biological functions where you would see people actively try to resist it. As a culture, we resist it."
Bauer and his team designed a research app for Android phones, which tells the user when it is time to take a nap, when it would be good idea to go for a jog, or when the user could have a coffee or a beer. The application assumes that an activity at the wrong time of the day could impact healthy sleep at night. Bauer hopes that the app can impact users and make them think twice about certain activities: "Based on our literature, we found that caffeine can affect your sleep up to 14 hours before you go to sleep," Bauer said. "So if you have caffeine 2 hours after you're awake, you start getting to the edge of what could affect your next sleep."
There was no information whether ShutEye will become available to general users.
