From Idea to Intuitive Breathing Tool for Stress/Anxiety Relief and Better Sleep

When Stefanie Broes suffered from insomnia, she tried breathing exercises. But she found it difficult to keep her focus on breathing. Apps then! Only those didn't work either. When you have a panic attack or lie awake at night, you don't necessarily want to stare at a screen.

And so moonbird, the world's first portable breathing coach, was born. The device intuitively guides you to breathe slowly. The brainchild of Stefanie Broes and her brother Michael was developed in collaboration with healthcare lab LiCalab – a Thomas More College research group specialising in consumer research of technology for healthcare and well-being. This has allowed the performance, functionalities and design of moonbird to be tested extensively on different types of users in recent years.

Sascha Vermeylen is community manager and researcher at LiCalab. She is responsible for the user panel of over nine hundred citizens and more than four hundred care providers and care organisations, as well as for maintaining the (extremely valuable) database.