An Autoethnography of Living with a Sleep Robot

Soft robotics are used in real-world clinical situations including surgery, rehabilitation, and diagnosis. However, several challenges
remain to make soft robots more viable, especially for clinical intervention such as improving sleep quality, impacting physiological and
mental health. Our goal is to understand the application of soft robotics by users while performing everyday tasks in different scenarios
and settings. We aim to highlight the design challenges to advancing medical soft robots for sleep disorder patients. We do this through
an autoethnography of an insomnia patient with co-morbidity. The Somnox robot is a self-inflating cushion providing breathing
patterns and relaxation features. We observed it for 6 weeks and the results highlighted how environmental, social, and cultural aspects
influence sleep behaviour. Furthermore, Somnox is a multidimensional family companion robot that can ease stomach discomfort,
stress, reduce anxiety and can provide holistic care. Finally, we discuss the companionship nature and emotional dependence of
Somnox.