Sleepio Review

There are a number of research studies on Sleepio, including 7+ Randomized Controlled Trial (RCTs):

1. A randomized controlled trial investigated the effects of Sleepio on insomnia and depression in adults. When compared to a group who received an online sleep education course, Sleepio users demonstrated greater reductions in both insomnia and depression severity, with significantly higher rates of remission following treatment. (Cheng at al., 2018).

2. A randomized controlled trial investigated the effects of Sleepio on insomnia, hallucinations, and paranoia in college students, when compared to care as usual. Results found that after 10 weekly sessions, Sleepio users had decreased symptoms of paranoia, hallucinations, and insomnia (Freeman et al., 2017).

3. This study explored the effects of Sleepio on systolic blood pressure and measures of psychosocial health such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia. When compared to a control group receiving vascular risk factor education, Sleepio users demonstrated significantly greater improvements in sleep quality and psychosocial health. This was true for individuals with mild sleep impairment but does not result in short-term improvements in blood pressure. Findings support the feasibility of a low-cost, web-delivered sleep intervention (McGrath et al., 2017).

4. RCT examined the effects of Sleepio on quality of sleep and work-based productivity for adult Fortune 500 Company employees with insomnia. When compared to a waitlist control group, Sleepio users reported significant improvement in sleep and presenteeism after 6 weekly sessions (Bostcok et al., 2016).

5. A randomized controlled trial investigated the effects of Sleepio on insomnia and comorbid anxiety in adults diagnosed with insomnia. When compared to an information control group, Sleepio users showed significantly larger reductions in anxiety and insomnia after 6 weeks of engaging with the platform (Pillai et al., 2015).

6. An RCT investigated the effects of Sleepio on sleep quality, depression and anxiety. 164 adults with insomnia were randomly assigned to either 6 weekly sessions of Sleepio, imagery relief therapy, or treatment as usual. Treatment effects were observed for beliefs about sleep, and participants using Sleepio were found to have less intrusiveness of thoughts prior to sleep than imagery relief therapy or treatment as usual (Espie et al., 2014).

7. A randomized controlled trial on the effects of Sleepio on Chronic Insomnia Disorder when compared to Treatment as Usual (TAU) and Imagery Relief Therapy. Findings show that after 6 sessions, Sleepio users had sustained improvement of sleep efficiency compared to participants in TAU and Image Relief Therapy groups (Espie et al., 2012).

Additional studies are listed below.

1. A study by Cliffe and colleagues (Cliff et al., 2020) assessed the feasibility of adding Sleepio to the usual care of adolescents with insomnia (aged 14 to 17 years) attending specialist child and adolescent mental health services. After engaging with the platform for 6 weekly sessions, adolescent users reported high levels of satisfaction and acceptability, and statistically significant pre-post improvements were found in weekly diaries of sleep efficiency and sleep quality, and on measures of sleep, low mood, and anxiety.

2. A field experiment explored the effects of Sleepio on negative affect, job satisfaction, self-control, organizational citizenship behavior, and interpersonal deviance in a population experiencing insomnia. Results found that treatment had a beneficial direct effect on negative affect, job satisfaction, and self-control. No direct effects on organizational citizenship behavior or interpersonal deviance were detected, though some indirect effects were found (Barnes at al., 2017).