The Science of Dreamsicle

In this post, we break down the science of Dreamsicle so that you can quickly find the issue you are most curious or concerned about. We start with what we know doesn't work before moving on to what we know does work. At the end we will tie it altogether to show you how the Dreamsicle method works to maximize your wellness.

The Problem with Sitting Too Long:

According to the Mayo Clinic, over a dozen studies show that sitting too long can pose serious health risks for folks who do not lead an active lifestyle.

Worse than that, according to doctors at Yale Medicine, prolonged sitting, especially with poor posture, can put significant stress on the spine causing low back pain, tight hip flexors, and a weaker core--all of which contribute to a reduced spinal range of motion. All of this can lead to a serious condition with a funny sounding name--Dead Butt Syndrome.

In addition, looking down at our devices while working or resting can cause Tech Neck, resulting in tight shoulder and neck muscles.

You probably won't be shocked to learn that what doctors recommend to combat both the immediate discomfort and the long-term negative effects of sitting are making sure that your work station is set up ergonomically and, importantly, to take breaks from sitting.

Taking frequent breaks from sitting to work your glutes, your hips, your shoulders, your neck, your spine, and the rest of your body can help prevent your muscles from getting stiff and sore and preserve your range of motion so that you can play hard after you work hard.

This is exactly what Dreamsicle's movement breaks, at least one every hour, are designed to do. We aren't a weight loss app, quick or otherwise. Instead, our goal is to keep your muscles from getting locked up due to posture, stress, or both, so that you are able to take on the world of fun after you leave work.

Will Dreamsicle really work for me when other apps haven't?

To understand why Dreamsicle will work for you when other apps have not you have to understand the science of productivity. Specifically, you have to understand two of the greatest obstacles to productivity in your day: interruptions and decision fatigue.

These two work together to derail even the best of intentions when it comes to productivity.

Let's start with interruptions.

On average, it takes people over 20 minutes to recover from interruptions when they are working. How many times are you interrupted in a day by someone with a quick question, a ping from a work-related app, a text, or a call. Honestly, with all the interruptions in the modern world, it's a bit amazing that we manage to get anything done at all.

As productivity apps become more common in the workplace they introduce their own set of interruptions whether it be the helpful ping of your calendar to remind you that you have an event scheduled in 15 minutes or your language learning app reminding you that you haven't practiced today, the apps that are designed to help us often introduce interruption to our day that we have to navigate to stay on track or get back on track. With the average worker using 9 productivity apps her company employs, and each of those apps sending alerts, reminders, or attention-grabbing pings it is in direct opposition to maximizing our productivity, not least of all because it contributes to the second major enemy of productivity:

Decision Fatigue

Even if you haven't heard this term before, you know what it is. Decision fatigue is the phenomenon responsible for you eating the easiest, but not the healthiest thing, available to you when you get home from a long day of work where you had to be the arbiter of one million important decisions.

For a long time, we thought that willpower was like a muscle--the more you used it the stronger it got. Current research shows that there are many factors that affect willpower. Some researchers still believe willpower acts like a muscle, and, like a muscle, overuse of willpower can cause fatigue or failure. Other researchers believe willpower is a limited resource and the more you use it the less you will have over a period of time.

Simply put, having to make a lot of decisions is mentally exhausting and drains our capacity to make smart decisions later in the day. If you wonder why you seem to have such a hard time doing the things you know would be good for you after a long day of making decisions, this is likely the culprit.

Unfortunately, even the apps we use to get balance can inadvertently feed our decision fatigue in several ways.

First, many productivity apps offer an impressive suite of features for you to use and task you with arranging those features into a productivity system that will work for you. We've lost more than one work-life balance pioneer to decision fatigue after setting up the "perfect" system on her newest app.

Second, even if you use a productivity app that encourages breaks, you often have to make the decision of what to do on those breaks. Should you take a quick walk or login to your meditation app for a mental break? Can you do both? Should you? Oops! Too late! Your break is over, and it's time to prep for that meeting you have in 5 minutes.

You can probably already see how these two enemies of productivity can work together. when your attention is pulled between your inbox, your calendar, your team, and your life, you have to constantly make decisions about what to prioritize in the moment leading to decision fatigue by the end of the day.

The simple but radical premise behind Dreamsicle is that we remove the interruption of ads and the need to make a decision about how long to focus on work or what to do on your breaks.

We charge a small monthly subscription fee to eliminate the need for ads and therefore interruptions in your day. You set your goals for your working session and click, "Start." From there, Dreamsicle times your 25 minute focused working sessions and when your 5 minute break pops up you will be automatically lead through either a mindfulness or movement exercise to contribute to you overall wellness.

In our next post, we'll talk about why we decided to focus on movement and mindfulness as the best use of your time during your breaks!

In the meantime, if you would like to join the Beta test of Dreamsicle, please fill out the application below!

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