Let’s Explore Neat Prototypes That Propose Objects to Increase Self-Efficacy: 5-in-5, Part 4

A celestial lamp that will soothe children who experience night terrors.

I had terrible nightmares as a child. I won’t describe them, but they were extremely graphic and visceral; I’d wake up screaming and immediately run to my parents’ room and jump in their bed. They tired of this rather quickly and started locking their door, which made the experience worse. It’s estimated that 10–50% of children aged 3 to 6 experience nightmares, resulting in a lack of sleep and could develop into bedtime anxiety.

To help children experiencing nightmares develop the courage to sleep alone, I’ve created a rudimentary prototype of a floating celestial lamp that helps children who experience night terrors.

A sketch of what the lamp would ideally look like, floating on a puck-like base. Given the limited materials I had on hand, the physical prototype was less ideal.

The base of the lamp is a voice-activated device. Parents can help the child record a unique activation phrase that will turn on the lamp, as well as select stories or songs that provide comfort. The orb floats by strong magnets repelling each other, building on existing floating lamp technology. The light element illuminates the room, showing that there aren’t any monsters. Since it’s a floating lamp, the stars projected onto the ceiling and walls will move slowly, so the child can focus on the stars and track their movement. The song or story will play softly in order to lull the child to sleep. It will automatically turn off in half an hour. The child can activate it as many times as they need in order to get through the night.

Forming the aluminum sphere around a glass bowl. Really kicking myself for not buying that small clear fishbowl at the dollar store a few weeks back. Marceline the Vampire Queen is cheering me on.

This rudimentary prototype was built out of aluminum foil that I formed around a glass bowl. After forming both sides, I poked holes in the foil with a kitchen knife and placed an LED puck light inside. I don’t have any magnets, so I used the bowl as the base.

An invisible feature of this lamp is that it tracks how many times the child activates it. This can be helpful for parents who are questioning whether it’s a passing phase or developing into a severe situation and they should seek help.

Testing how the lamp would function inside a completely dark room (those are light-blocking curtains). Notice the pattern projected onto the ceiling. The LED I used is a bit too bright; a custom LED with less magnitude would provide the perfect amount of illumination.

Growing up, I had a Glow Worm to help me sleep (where my 1980s babies at?). It provided enough light to confirm that there wasn’t a murderer at my door, but it would have been great if it could recite my favorite José Martí stories and show my parents the metrics that proved that I did in fact have severe nighttime anxiety.