ShutEye is a research application that was developed by the University of Washington and Intel Labs Seattle for Android-based mobile phones. The intent of ShutEye is to help improve people's awareness about healthy sleep hygiene — that is, the practices that are believed to promote improved quality of sleep. A glanceable display on the wallpaper of a person's mobile phone provides recommendations about common activities that are known to impact sleep relative to sleep and wake times: consuming caffeine, napping, exercising, eating heavy meals, consuming alcohol, ingesting nicotine, and relaxing. For example, a person can quickly glance at his or her phone to see if having a cup of coffee or doing vigorous exercise right now is likely to impact tonight's sleep. ShutEye’s display appears on the phone's lockscreen as well as its live wallpaper when the phone is unlocked. Icons for the phone's other phone applications — for example, “Gmail,” “Camera” or “Settings” — can sit on top of ShutEye’s wallpaper display.


ShutEye’s display uses a timeline metaphor with colored horizontal bars that correspond to activities that can impact sleep. Thin bars represent times when the activity is not recommended, while thick bars indicate that the activity is either unlikely to negatively affect sleep (e.g., having a cup of coffee) or likely to improve sleep (e.g., relaxing or exercising). The vertical bar indicates the current time on the timeline. The intersection of the activity’s bar with the vertical bar shows the current recommendation — if the activity’s bar is thin, the activity is not recommended; if it’s thick, it’s probably okay.


ShutEye was evaluated in a 4-week field study with 11 participants who were recruited from the general population.