Sleepio is a digital sleep-improvement program featuring cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques developed by sleep scientist Colin Espie and ex-insomnia sufferer Peter Hames.
Sleepio was tested in a randomized placebo-group clinical trial in 2012.Colin A. Espie, Simon D. Kyle, Chris Williams, Jason C. Ong, Neil J. Douglas, Peter Hames, June S. L. Brown, “A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of online cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic insomnia disorder delivered via an automated media-rich web application”, Sleep, June 2012. In a commentary on this research published by The Lancet, Sleepio was described as "a proven intervention for sleep disorders using the internet". The journal Nature described Sleepio as "about as effective as CBT delivered in person".
History Sleepio is the first program from Big Health, the behavioural medicine company co-founded by Professor Colin Espie and Peter Hames.Steve O'Hear, “Big Health, the startup behind Sleepio, raises $12M to scale delivery of non-drug mental health solutions”, Techcrunch, July 2016.
In March 2013 Sleepio was one of the launch apps in the Apps Library of the UK National Health Service (NHS).Jessica Hodgson, “U.K. Health Service Takes Closer Look at Apps’ Potential”, The Wall Street Journal, May 2013.
Sleepio was one of ten partners worldwide to launch on Jawbone's UP self-tracking platform in April 2013,Dante D’Orazio, “Jawbone launches an ecosystem for Up, lets other apps tap into your fitness data”, The Verge, April 2013. allowing import of sleep data collected by the UP activity tracker into Sleepio. Integrated support is also available to users of the BodyMedia FIT band.
Sleepio was available free of charge via the NHS to people over 18 living in the English counties of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
How it works The Sleepio program is delivered via the web and via mobile devices.Espie, C. A., Hames P., McKinstry, B., , “Sleep Medicine Clinics”, September 2013. A virtual sleep expert, The Prof, guides the user through six interactive weekly sessions.Lynne Lamberg, “The Virtual Doctor Will See you Now”, Psychiatric News, August 17, 2012.
The results of the cognitive behavioural therapy group showed Sleepio to be comparable in effectiveness to face-to-face CBT.
A 2020 study involving over 7,000 NHS patients found that a six-week Sleepio treatment was effective, with a success rate of 56% compared to a target success rate of 50%, and a gain of nearly six hours of sleep per week.
Awards In March 2013, Sleepio was a finalist in the Digital Innovation category at the NHS Innovation EXPO.Stephen Adams, “Inside the healthcare ‘Dragons’ Den’”, The Telegraph, March 2013.
In November 2013, Sleepio was the winning "Healthcare IT Product Innovation" as selected by a UK healthcare industry website, E-Health Insider.“Mersey Burns App wins EHI Awards 2013”, EHI Mobile, October 2013. The start-up was also a semi-finalist in the BIG Awards organised by Cisco Systems, Inc. in 2013.Caroline Baldwin, “Cisco announces BIG Awards startup semi-finalists”, Computer Weekly, August 2013.
In April 2014, Sleepio won the Bupa Startup competition at Wired Health.Liat Clark, "Insomnia app Sleepio wins startup competition at Wired Health", Wired, May 2014.
In June 2014, the company behind the Sleepio program, Big Health, was chosen as the Best Health Startup at The Europas Awards, the annual event honoring the best tech startups in Europe.
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