Willpower as a lullaby

SleepCare is an Android app developed by researchers from TU Delft, the University of Utrecht and the University of Amsterdam to help chronic insomnia sufferers. “Between 10-15% of people suffer from insomnia, leading to various problems like lack of concentration and even depression,” said team member Corine Horsch, PhD candidate at TU Delft where she works at the Interactive Intelligence Group in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science. “There are therapies available for people suffering from insomnia, but the problem is that they don’t stick to the exercises.” The app is based on existing therapy provided by psychologists. In addition to recording sleep patterns users also practice sleep restriction, relaxation exercises and sleep hygiene, all tailored to the user’s daily life pattern. The aim is to increase patient therapy compliance, and to help users learn better sleep rhythms. The communication with the virtual coach is comparable to WhatsApp.

The team published a paper describing the findings of a meta-analysis, interviews and focus groups in the Journal of Medical Internet Research on September 4, 2015. “I learned from the users that they usually rely on their own willpower to stick to their exercises, but willpower is what goes missing first when you are operating on a low energy level. We call this ego depletion. It’s also something you put a lot of faith in when you’re thinking about your future therapy, which we describe as the optimism bias. At the same time we like to think that success comes from our own effort, and failure is due to the lack of effectiveness of the product. This we call the self-serving bias. We used these lessons in designing our app,” explained Horsch.

According to the team, insomnia is generally treatable and the right training can get you to sleep better, which is more effective than medication in the long term. “I can imagine that in some cases our virtual sleep coach will be even better than a therapist, since it’s always there when you need it, right in your pocket,” said Horsch. The team is currently looking for chronic insomnia sufferers to participate in the research investigating the effectiveness of the app. You can see the website for more details, or read the full report here.