Sleep Deprivation is a serious problem for students, who are attempting to balance study, social life, and sometimes a job. The average adult needs 8 hours of sleep per night, with some young adults needing up to 10 hours of sleep in order to lead a healthy, active life. Negative effects of sleep deprivation include learning and memory issues, weight gain, safety problems, negative health effects, moodiness and irritability, and weak immune system.
Target Objective:
Increase student awareness of the problems associated with Sleep Deprivation and benefits of a proper night's sleep.
Audience:
Students developing study, social, and sleep habits.
Theory:
Health Belief Model, focusing on perceptions of threat, benefits of avoiding threat, and barriers to behavior change.
Story, Characters:
You play Orphe, a child of the god Morpheus, the god of dreams. This makes you a child of two worlds, Awake (Vigil) and Asleep(Somnia). You are seeking to prove your worth the Morpheus, who only exists in Somnia, the world of sleep.
My apologies for the very rough concept art that follows. This should help you get a basic picture of what I am thinking visually.
Game Objective:
To enter the world of Somnia and remain in Somnia for the game time of 8 hours (this is only minutes, really) in order to find Morpheus.
The Game:
Both Vigil and Somnia are maze like game worlds. These could be created in Flash.
In Vigil: Vigil is a light, loud world.
You will spend at least 16 game hours in Vigil. You can spend more hours (reducing your time in Somnia).
You will encounter enemies. You may fight or avoid them. Defeating enemies earns you points.
However, every enemy raises your Nightmare meter. When you reach a certain threshold of Nightmares, you receive consequences in Somnia.
You may drink "potions" to give you more power, but these hold a consequence in Vigil.
When evening sets in, the player may activate "Light". This extends your time in Vigil. There is a consequence in Somnia.
When darkness arrives, a gate opens to Somnia, the world of sleep, which you must find.
Somnia: Somnia is a dark, quiet world full of dreams.
In the world of Somnia, you search for Morpheus. You must stay in Somnia 8 hours to find him.
You encounter dreams and fantasies. These dreams extend your time in Somnia.
However: if you have drank potions, for each potion you drank in Vigil, and alarm will sound in Somnia. If you do not find the "Snooze" (looking for a better name), you will exit into Vigil before 8 hours. The more potion you drank in Vigil, the more frequently this happens.
Also: at each level of the nightmare meter, you will encounter an enemy you faced in Vigil. If you do not defeat the nightmare, you will be sent back to Vigil before 8 hours.
If you activated a light in Vigil to beat more monsters, your time is shortened.
If you remain in Somnia for 8 hours, you meet Morpheus, have proven your worth by staying in the world of sleep (your points for defeating monsters don't hurt either), and win.
If you do not, then you are returned to Vigil:
When you are returned to Vigil, you are returned with "Sleep Debt". Elements of the maze disappear, limiting where you can go to find the gate to Somnia after your day. You move slower, so will need more "potions" to have enough speed to avoid and fight enemies. There are more enemies. As your sleep debt increases, Vigil becomes more dangerous: with pits and other places that can cause nightmares in Somnia. Orphe's color desaturates.
The Lesson: Which should be explained somehow at the ending.
Potions = Caffeine, alchohol, and nicotine. These keep you awake at night.
Enemies =Stress. Some stress is natural, but too much stress will cause insomnia.
Lights = Light. Artificial lighting disrupts production of melatonin which keeps your sleep cycle.
Other risk behaviors are discussed.
It is also explained that changes to Vigil represent the negative effects of sleep debt (not sleeping 8 hours). You move slower because your health is compromised and you are tired. There are more enemies because you are more stressed. The avatar for Orphe becomes gray because his mood is sour. Your memory is not as good, so the map disappears and changes. Sleep debt also increases accidents, so the number of dangers (pits, etc) increase as you acquire more sleep debt from not staying in Somnia 8 hours. Other negative effects are discussed.
Students then have the option of taking a sleep survey and seeing which risk factors for sleep deprivation they have and what good sleep habits they have. Ideally, they could join a community to discuss student issues with making time for sleep.
Links on Sleep and Health:
http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/importance_of_sleep_and_health
http://teenshealth.org/teen/your_body/take_care/how_much_sleep.html#
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/insomnia/DS00187/DSECTION=causes
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sleep/HQ01387
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