This is the second Challenge Assumptions assignment for the Stanford Venture Lab - A Crash Course on Creativity. This is from Team Jazz Hands.

1. CHALLENGE ASSUMPTIONS 2
Team Jazz Hands

2. Change • Throughout the day
Physical • Before sleep
Behavior • After waking up
Change • Throughout the day
Mental • Before sleep
Behavior • After waking up

3. Change Physical
Behavior • Throughout the day
1. Set a schedule or routine a week or two in advance of event we anticipate,
making sleep a part of that routine
2. Exercise to diffuse the excess energy around excitement
3. Do something each day that will contribute to or enhance your enjoyment of
what you are anticipating (feel progress toward it)
4. Experiment with eating different things for dinner - to see which things
induce better sleep
5. Eliminate or decrease caffeine
6. Changing schedule, if you have one
7. Volunteer or help someone out; turn the focus of energy outward
8. Stay physically active and engaged during the day.
9. Don't nap during the day.
10. Get a massage.
11. Try acupuncture
12. Try chiropractic.

4. Change Physical
Behavior
• Throughout the day
13. Get tested for sleep apnea
14. Try Yoga
15. Take naps
16. Tale a long drive before bed
17. Drink plenty of water and stay hydrated.
18. Reduce or eliminate sugar.
19. Do what you can to create your idea sleep environment.
20. Try changing the amount of protein or carbs you eat.
21. Eat a healthy and substantial enough dinner that you don't go to bed hungry.
22. Get outside (if you are inside a lot) and expose yourself to more light during
the day.
23. Get a light therapy box (if you live somewhere that dosent have a lot of
daylight... or if you work nights).
24. Quit smoking (if you smoke).

5. Change Physical
Behavior
• Before sleep
1. Consider all the ways we will not enjoy what we are anticipating if we have not had
enough sleep
2. Clean house, or do household projects
3. Create a personal playlist of music or some other audio to listen to at night
4. Do not do anything in bed other than sleep
5. Don't watch t.v. for at least 1 hr before bed.
6. Don’t read for at least 30 min before bed
7. Don't eat within 2 hours before bed.
8. Don't check email or social networks for at least 1 hour before bed.
9. Don't check email or social networks for at least 1 hour before bed.
10. Create a personal, physical, bedtime/pre-sleep ritual (such as drinking tea, reading
poem, etc).
11. Take a hot bath before bed.
12. Drink a glass of wine.
13. Set up and use a white noise machine while you sleep.
14. Relaxation yoga poses before bed
15. Take melatonin

6. Change Physical
Behavior
• Before sleep
16. Take over-the-counter medication
17. Determine which scents relax you and bring those smells into your sleep environment.
18. Determine if the color of your sleeping area relaxes you or agitates you and change it to relax you if
necessary.
19. Create a personal lullaby and sing it to yourself before bed.
20. Get sheets and blankets that are extremely soft and comfortable (that you will look forward to).
21. Get a new mattress
22. Get some new pajamas that are so comfortable they don't feel like wearing anything at all.
23. Create and follow a ritual for how you say goodnight to others.
24. Create a physical environment that makes you feel sleepy or that you associate with being
sleepy/falling asleep.
25. Create a way to stargaze while in bed.
26. Use a humidifier or steam machine
27. Focus on the changes in shades of color (such as blue)
28. Create and use a programmable pillow (program it to massage our neck, play certain music, etc.
29. Chant before bed
30. A rocking chair or swing for grownups to change the physical sensations before bed.
31. Change the orientation of your bed.

7. Change Physical
Behavior
• Before sleep
32. Sing or chant (such as "om.")
33. Good Vibrations: I used to put my baby on the washing machine, wrapped and buckled up snuggly
in a car seat to put her to sleep. Could you recreate that feeling for grownups?
34. What if you could view natural phenomena in scenes that would help the sleepless enjoy a relaxed,
calm, non-stressful sense of the passage of time? Opening of flowers, ripples from raindrops,
hummingbirds in flight.
35. What if you could watch yourself relax? Would it help to see how one’s relaxed brain waves look as
you are practicing being calm and relaxed?
36. Listen to the “idealized sounds” of your partner or your pet breathe and breathe along with them.
The reality of your partner’s breathing may be less than ideal (snoring)
37. Drink warm milk.
38. Smell a baby
39. Make sure the room isn't too hot (or too cold).
40. Use a sleep mask.
41. With eyes closed, focus on relaxing each muscle, one by one... starting with your toes and working
up.
42. If possible, go to sleep at the same time every night.
43. Watch fish in a tank or fire in a fireplace (or fire pit) - or a video of those if you don't have the real
thing.

8. Change Physical
Behavior
• After waking up
1. Enjoy favorite activity when you wake up.
2. Enjoy a favorite food when you wake up.
3. Make your bed so that it will be more of a routine
when you get to unmake it for sleep.

9. Change Mental
Behavior
• Throughout the day
1. Engage a friend to discuss excitement during the day
2. Keeping a gratitude journal
3. Working with a therapist
4. Meditation
5. Hypnosis
6. Reconnect/reach out to someone from your past in some way each day
7. Bravely consider worst case scenario in detail
8. Make a plan
9. Read about people in similar situations
10. Stay mentally engaged during the day
11. Spend some time visualizing falling asleep and getting a good night's sleep
12. Think of a ideal place that you can visualize to relax you when there is stress.

10. Change Mental
Behavior
• Before sleep
1. Try really hard to stay awake (reverse psychology).
2. Create a countdown ritual
3. Do some big or small planning/preparation for the event for a
half hour each night
4. Create a to-do list for the next day, prior to bed
5. Listen to mellow music in the time before bed
6. Listen to /watch some comedy before bed.
7. Meditation
8. Contemplate progress. Consider all we have already done to
address the situation
9. Write all your thoughts in your Journal before you try to sleep
(to empty your mind).
10. Get lost in a good book (fiction)

11. Change Mental
Behavior
• Before sleep
11. Determine a set of images that relax you and then visualize them before
sleep
12. Ask someone you love or deeply care about to record a lullaby for you to
listen to at night
13. Visualize you guardian angels or friends/relatives that are very close.
14. Focus on your breathing.
15. Artistic Hypnosis – mentally tracing predictable, non-threatening, repetitive
paths — such as knitting, making a cat’s eye, or walking a maze.
16. Give yourself time to focus on each thing your senses are experiencing and
all that awareness to comfort and relax you.
17. Spend some time fantasizing - you could create your perfect house or your
favorite location.
18. Create a story that you can tell yourself each night and have an ongoing
storyline that you can continue a bit further each night as you fall asleep.
This will give you something to look forward too at sleep time.
19. Imagine yourself swinging or rocking or floating.
20. Think about relaxing instead of sleeping.

12. Change Mental
Behavior
• After waking up
1. Spend some time daydreaming in bed before you get
up and start the day.