WHY SELF-EXPERIMENT WHEN I KNOW THAT ALL THESE HEALTHY ACTIVITIES ARE GOOD FOR ME?
Have you ever tried some healthy activity (often, multiple times) only to find out that you aren't able to stick to it or that it isn't helping you like you thought it would? Have you ever tried to adopt a healthy habit but don't really know if it's helping you?
If your answer is Yes to any of those questions, worry not, you're not alone! Each individual is different, with their unique life, context, circumstances, experiences, personality, likes and dislikes. This means that a healthy activity that 'works' for Person A may not necessarily work for Person B in the same way.
Most evidence for popular health interventions is from research studies that tell you what happened 'on average' (e.g., "on average, meditation using app X decreased users' stress by Y points over 4 weeks").
Unfortunately, this does not tell you how much that response varied across the different participants in the study.... put differently, how many people the intervention did not work for. See the image below for an example.
If your answer is Yes to any of those questions, worry not, you're not alone! Each individual is different, with their unique life, context, circumstances, experiences, personality, likes and dislikes. This means that a healthy activity that 'works' for Person A may not necessarily work for Person B in the same way.
Most evidence for popular health interventions is from research studies that tell you what happened 'on average' (e.g., "on average, meditation using app X decreased users' stress by Y points over 4 weeks").
Unfortunately, this does not tell you how much that response varied across the different participants in the study.... put differently, how many people the intervention did not work for. See the image below for an example.
Waterfall plot showing change in weight for individual participants in a weight-loss intervention comparing low-carb and low-fat diets (from Gardner et al. 2018).
Self-experimentation is a systematic way in which you can find out whether a given healthy activity actually improves your own well-being. These insights can help you make decisions about which activities to adopt in your life.
HOW DOES HACK YOUR HEALTH WORK?
Hack Your Health is a tool designed to help you run short self-experiments to explore if small changes in your life, such as a few minutes of exercise or deep breathing, improve some aspects of your well-being, specifically, your energy, happiness, stress and focus.
1. Once you choose the activity that you'd like to try and complete the sign up process, you will begin your 18-day experiment.
We'll give you basic instructions on how to perform the activity, but you can further improvise it in a way that you like.
2. Once the experiment begins, each day you'll be randomly assigned to either stick to your usual routine, OR do the activity.
3. You'll also be tracking your stress, focus, happiness and energy on all 18 days.
This way, we will be able to compare days that you do the activity vs. don't, and figure out whether ADDING that activity seemed to improve your well-being!
4. Once your experiment ends, we will analyze your data and share the insights with you (send you a pdf with graphs and results explained in simple language).
1. Once you choose the activity that you'd like to try and complete the sign up process, you will begin your 18-day experiment.
We'll give you basic instructions on how to perform the activity, but you can further improvise it in a way that you like.
2. Once the experiment begins, each day you'll be randomly assigned to either stick to your usual routine, OR do the activity.
3. You'll also be tracking your stress, focus, happiness and energy on all 18 days.
This way, we will be able to compare days that you do the activity vs. don't, and figure out whether ADDING that activity seemed to improve your well-being!
4. Once your experiment ends, we will analyze your data and share the insights with you (send you a pdf with graphs and results explained in simple language).
HOW DO I JOIN THE HACK YOUR HEALTH RESEARCH STUDY?
Hack Your Health is currently hosted on a research platform called ProofPilot.
Step 1: Read information and choose the activity you want to try.
Step 2: Click on the particular link to sign up, complete the sign-up process (~10-15 minutes) and get set up.
Hack Your Health is NOT an app, all communication will happen via SMS and email!
Step 1: Read information and choose the activity you want to try.
Step 2: Click on the particular link to sign up, complete the sign-up process (~10-15 minutes) and get set up.
Hack Your Health is NOT an app, all communication will happen via SMS and email!
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE IN THE STUDY?
You need to be 18 years of age or older, living in the US, and be using a smartphone with regular access to the internet.
Additionally, we recommend that you try an activity that you aren't already doing or have done recently (e.g., don't try meditation if you're doing it already). Additionally, if you are considering trying out vigorous physical activity, consider consulting your doctor, especially if you have a chronic health problem, recurring injury, or are pregnant or nursing.
Additionally, we recommend that you try an activity that you aren't already doing or have done recently (e.g., don't try meditation if you're doing it already). Additionally, if you are considering trying out vigorous physical activity, consider consulting your doctor, especially if you have a chronic health problem, recurring injury, or are pregnant or nursing.
CAN I LEAVE MY SELF-EXPERIMENT ONCE IT BEGINS?
You are free to discontinue the experiment whenever you want. However, since the purpose of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of Hack Your Health for users such as yourself, we would appreciate it if you gave us feedback about why you decided to discontinue!