Lean, mean sleep machine? : Effects and experiences of a sleep robot intervention for adults with insomnia

Sammanfattning: Many adults suffer from insomnia disorder, struggling to fall asleep, stay asleep, or with early morning awakenings. Hyperarousal is an important predisposing, precipitating and perpetuating factor to insomnia. Anxiety, depression and ADHD are common comorbid disorders, with shared cognitive, behavioral, genetic, and neurological features. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the gold-standard treatment, more effective and economical than pharmacological treatments, though not suitable or available for everyone. Unfortunately, sleeping pills are still more common than CBT-I, despite known risks. One potential treatment avenue is consumer sleep technology, including interventional sleep robots. This thesis aimed to assess the safety, acceptability, effects, and experiences of a commercial sleep robot for insomnia in adults. Overall, the thesis does not strongly support the sleep robot as an effective insomnia treatment. The intervention might not have addressed important precipitating factors of the participants’ insomnia, and the robot’s impact on stress reactivity and other potentially important factors remain uncertain. Until more robust research studies are conducted, the current sleep robot intervention should not be considered an evidence-based treatment for adults with insomnia.