EINDHOVEN, 26 April 2021 by AlphaBeats
Hey there!
AlphaBeats here with our monthly newsletter to keep you up to date with everything that is happening around our start-up.
This time we thought it would be cool to share some facts about you, our followers and beta testers, as well as some interesting (and disturbing) insights about stress — the problem we’re on a mission to tackle!
A few months ago we conducted a survey among all our beta testers (i.e., most of you reading this blog) to get to know you and your relationship with stress a little better. Your answers told us a few interesting things.
First of all, you all have busy lives, at least that’s what 85% of you reported. 68% said that stress is influencing their lives, with 64% experiencing high to very high stress levels. And 69% of you confessed having difficulties relaxing. We guess that’s why you became a beta tester with us.
When asking about your age (how rude of us!) we discovered that most of you (75.4%) are between 26 and 55 years old. That’s roughly the age of the working population. It’s a well known fact that most people experience stress at work. In the US 70% of all people report work as the main source of stress. Research conducted here in The Netherlands showed that 17% of the working population suffered symptoms of burn-out in 2019. That’s an alarming 1.3 million employees. It’s clear something has to be done. (We’re working on it!)
We also found out that most of you guys are, well, guys. Our beta testing population is composed of 67.1% men versus 32.6% of women. What’s going on here? Do women not experience stress?
On the contrary, a US stress study found that women are more likely than men (28% of all women versus 20% of all men) to report high levels of stress. Although the study showed that women are slightly better than men (35% vs. 30%) of successfully managing stress, they’re both not doing great.
When the US study asked about how people cope with stress, most named sedentary activities like reading, listening to music and watching television in order to relax. Good news for us, since listening to AlphaBeats is also done while sitting down. Needless to say, it’s our ambition that we will be included as a stress management activity in future research. (We’re working on it!)
So what’s the reason for the relative scarcity of women in our beta testing community? Without wanting to play psychologist (or worse, sexist), we think it may have something to do with the fact that men are generally more interested in technology and more drawn to a technical solution for managing stress. Which is what we have to offer.
Yet needless to say, AlphaBeats is for women too! And we definitely want more women in our testing squad. So please, women everywhere, come and register with us as a beta tester. And all of you reading this, please inspire your wives, girlfriends, daughters, aunts, nieces, women friends and women colleagues to register with us. Experience how our technology nudges you into the relaxing alpha state while listening to your favourite music.
It’s free. And it may even work.
More about the stress research featured above:
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2010/gender-stress.pdf
https://www.tno.nl/nl/over-tno/nieuws/2020/11/verzuimkosten-door-werkstress-lopen-op-tot-3-1-miljard