A Cape Elizabeth middle schooler who was battling through fatigue brought on by a lack of sleep last winter has come up with an innovative way to get some shut-eye.

Rohan Freedman, who will enter Cape Elizabeth High School as a ninth grader this fall, spent several months through the winter and spring formulating an idea for a pillow called a “Sheep Counter” that aims to solve sleep deprivation. Though Freedman did not manufacture the pillow due to time and expense, his vision was recognized during a national competition in June.

“I think what made my invention stand out is that it was a very different idea,” Freedman said.

Freedman, a former member of his middle school coding club, robotics and debate teams, was selected as State Merit Winner from Maine in the 2015 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge for his invention. This summer, judges chose 10 students across the country as finalists and one winner from each of the 50 states.

“It was a video submission contest,” Freedman said. “I sent (my video) in and had to wait a few months to hear back. The judges scored the video based on certain criteria that’s on the (contest) website.”

Among hundreds of inventions nationwide, Freedman’s Sheep Counter was chosen as the top entry for Maine based on creativity, scientific knowledge, persuasiveness and overall presentation.

The Young Scientist Challenge, according to the Discovery Education website, is the nation’s premier science competition for middle school students, grades 5-8, that asks students to submit a two-minute video describing a new solution to an everyday problem.

Freedman said while his invention was recognized based solely on his design, if he had the time and resources he would “love to” create the pillow and test it out. The Sheep Counter, he said, only exists in diagram form on whiteboard in his basement, but he thinks developing the device is a real possibility.

“It would take a lot more time and research for it to actually work,” Freedman said. “Maybe in college I will look into it a little more.”

Freedman took time this week to answer questions for the Current about why he decided to participate in the Young Scientist Challenge and how he came up with the idea for his Sheep Counter invention.

Q: What does it mean to be selected as State Merit Winner from Maine in the 2015 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge?

A: To me it means a lot. I mostly submitted my idea to this contest so I could share my invention with others. I can’t say I wasn’t tempted by the possible rewards from the contest, but my intentions were mostly for sharing my idea. I also can’t say I was not disappointed that I was not a national finalist, but I am so happy to be selected as the Maine winner. This contest has definitely created new opportunities for me in science.

Q: Tell us about your Sheep Counter invention. How did you come up with the idea?

A: Well, it was mid-winter around January and I was thinking about entering this Science Challenge that had a submission deadline in April. I was lying on my couch thinking of major problems in the world today that needed solutions. I had many problems to choose from but most were common problems that had existing minor solutions. I had so many choices, that I didn’t know which to choose. I don’t remember exactly why I was tired, but that day I was really tired, and I fell asleep on my couch. I woke up around one to two hours later and was still tired. Then it hit me: what if the conundrum I was going to solve was sleep deprivation?

As you may have already known, sleep is important and plays a big role in our health. One out of every three people has some form of insomnia. Sleep loss is a big public safety hazard. Drowsiness can slow reaction time to as much as someone driving drunk. If you can get pulled over for drinking and driving, you should be pulled over for not getting enough sleep and driving. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, sleep deprivation accounts for 100,000 auto crashes and 1,550 crash-related deaths a year in the U.S.

Sleep deprivation is a major problem on the rise as teens and college students are complaining they do not get enough sleep. In the long run, taking sleeping pills isn’t effective and can be dangerous. Getting less than 7-8 hours of good sleep increases a person’s risk of getting heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

Q: How did you hear about the Young Scientist Challenge? What does it mean to you to participate?

A: I watched past contestants’ videos on the Internet and in other places and was inspired to create a video like theirs with a new idea that could potentially help the world in a positive way.

Q: What do you enjoy about science? Do you plan to pursue science after high school?

A: I like that science is infinite in that you can never completely know everything and you can never solve all scientific problems completely. There is always a new problem to solve. You can be an expert in one scientific area and still not know everything there is to know in your scientific area.

I am only entering ninth grade this year so I am not too sure what I want to do, and I have a lot of time before I graduate from high school. But a science career is something I am definitely considering.

Q: How long did it take you to design your Sheep Counter? How does it work?

A: It took me around one week to brainstorm the idea, two months to think of ways to improve my idea, and around two months to complete my 2-minute video which I worked on whenever I had free time in my schedule. So the whole process was around four months. I worked on it around one to four hours a day depending on the day.

The Sheep Counter is a pillow that has many machines that accurately measure the sleeper’s brain waves, eye movement, and muscle movement. Also in the pillow are two small Van de Graaff machines that are built to produce very exact mild electrical discharges with specific waveforms that are sent to your brain through the electroencephalogram electrodes. Basically, when you sleep, you go through cycles/stages 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM. Each stage has different characteristics of brain waves, eye movement, and muscle movements that the machine can detect and then accurately assess which stage of sleep the sleeper is in with this data.

The Sheep Counter always produces the next wave type in the sleeping stage sequence and transfers it to the brain to create a faster transition and to enhance quicker sleep. The different waveform types are: alpha rhythm, spindle, delta, theta and beta. The Sheep Counter would run through the stages two times then automatically shut off as it can predict you are asleep, allowing your body to do the rest.

An example is when you are in Stage 1 sleep and your brain is producing theta waves, the Van de Graaff machine is programmed to produce a spindle wave-type and then discharge the electricity through the electroencephalogram, transferring the wave to the brain. The brain gets the discharge and simply mimics the waveform, making the Stage 2 transition quicker. It does this with all stages but with different kinds of waves.

Q: What is the next step for you as Maine winner of the challenge? Will you be competing in any similar challenges next school year?

A: As the Maine state winner of the challenge, I don’t have any further steps. I may look further into and research sleep science as this area (sleep) still has a lot more room for discovery and improvement.

There is a possibility in the next few years that I will participate in a similar science-related challenge. If I have the time, I will definitely do it. I had a lot of fun designing my invention. I want to encourage more people from Maine to enter this challenge and other ones like it. Even if you don’t win anything, you still learn a lot from the research.

Rohan FreedmanA diagram, drawn by Rohan Freedman on a whiteboard, shows the various parts included in his Sheep Counter pillow invention.Courtesy photo