science

Sleepio

Sleepio is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sleepio rather than just read about it. In short: 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.

Key takeaways

Sleepio belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sleepio to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sleepio from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

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. 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. In March 2013 Sleepio was one of the launch apps in the Apps Library of the UK National Health Service (NHS). Sleepio was one of ten partners worldwide to launch on Jawbone's UP self-tracking platform in 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. A virtual sleep expert, The Prof, guides the user through six interactive weekly sessions. 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. In November 2013, Sleepio was the winning "Healthcare IT Product Innovation" as selected by a UK healthcare industry website, E-Health Insider. The start-up was also a semi-finalist in the BIG Awards organised by Cisco Systems, Inc. in 2013. In April 2014, Sleepio won the Bupa Startup competition at Wired Health. 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.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sleepio

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sleepio claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sleepio before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sleepio ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sleepio

In research: Sleepio appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sleepio in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sleepio is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cognitive behavioral therapy, Sleep, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sleepio outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sleepio in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sleepio means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sleepio out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sleepio in simple terms?

Why does Sleepio matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sleepio?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sleepio.