J Korean Soc Biol Ther Psychiatry.  2021 Feb;27(1):50-58.

Designing a Mobile Intervention Platform to Help Alleviate Insomnia Symptoms in College Students

• Park S
• Lee SW
• Ahn D
• Cha M

Abstract

Objectives
：An increasing number of people are affected by sleep problems every year. The current study presents findings from experiments that utilize a mobile application-based cognitive-behavioral treatment for insomnia (CBT-I).
Methods
：Our application aims to alleviate insomnia symptoms by providing real-time and direct interventions in people’s daily lives. We recruited 50 participants to test the effectiveness of the app via a six-week-long prospective experiment.
Results
：We find that insomnia symptoms are reduced significantly for both the treatment group, who used the app, and the control group, who watched educational videos [F(2,39)=60.82, p<0.001]. Sleep efficiency improved more quickly in the treatment group than in the control group. Participants who followed higher compliance to the intervention reduced their wake after sleep onset (WASO) time more substantially.
Conclusion
：Our results suggest that app-based CBT-I interventions may have additional benefits for enhancing objective sleep quality, including sleep efficiency or WASO, compared to sleep hygiene education. The preliminary findings of the current research shed light on future mobile intervention apps’ design choices for insomnia.

Keyword

Insomnia; Sleep efficiency; Wake after sleep onset; Cognitive behavioral therapy; Mobile application intervention.