Insomnia treatment goes digital
Trouble sleeping? There’s now a digital therapeutic for that.
The story: Big Health received FDA clearance for its insomnia digital therapeutic, SleepioRx.
What is it?
- The program is a prescription-based, 90-day cognitive behavioral therapy experience.
- It starts with a provider introducing the product to the patients and then periodically checking in as the patient begins to use it. Otherwise, the program is entirely self-directed in the Sleepio platform.
- Across the product’s 25 clinical trials, up to 76% of SleepioRx users achieved healthy sleep and continued improvements in sleep quality in the years after going through the program.
Insomnia’s toll: If you’ve ever struggled with insomnia, even just for an acute period, you know how harmful it can be to the rest of your life.
- Poor sleep can lead to an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and many other chronic health issues. People who suffer from poor sleep quality often struggle with their mental health, which in turn can lead to more trouble falling and staying asleep.
- In the U.S. the estimated economic impact of insomnia is $62.3 billion in annual lost productivity.
- Insomnia also exists on a spectrum. Acute insomnia can be short-lived—or it can turn into a years-long, chronic struggle.
Why DTx for insomnia is a big deal: This product is disrupting the existing sleep disorder remedy landscape.
- Many other sleep remedies are for casual users, not those with serious sleep disorders. Or, they may not be vetted for efficacy.
- Insomniacs’ main options for trying to get a good night’s sleep are medications and therapy, both of which are imperfect treatments on their own. Medications don’t work the same or even continually for every patient and therapy can be challenging to access, with many patients facing long waitlists.
- This product builds on an existing platform but adds a layer of clinical rigor with the prescription element. The existing Sleepio offering has been around for over a decade, with buy-in from employer and payer partnerships.
- Plus, by removing the need for professional guidance (beyond onboarding and occasional check-ins), the DTx product becomes more easily scalable.