Association of Behavioral Phenotypes With Changes in Sleep During a Workplace Wellness Program

Area of Science:

• Behavioral science and public health
• Sleep medicine and chronobiology
• Human-computer interaction and gamification

Background:

• Workplace wellness programs aim to improve health behaviors, including physical activity.
• Sleep duration is a critical health outcome affected by lifestyle factors.
• Individual behavioral differences may impact intervention effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how behavioral phenotypes affect changes in sleep duration.
• To analyze sleep duration changes within a physical activity intervention.
• To identify specific participant groups benefiting from gamified interventions.

Main Methods:

• Secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial involving 553 overweight/obese adults.
• Participants were assigned to control or gamification arms (support, collaboration, competition) for physical activity.
• Daily physical activity and sleep duration were monitored using wearable devices over 24 weeks; analyzed with linear mixed effects regression.

Main Results:

• Participants with a 'less physically active and less social' phenotype in the gamification with collaboration arm showed a significant increase in sleep duration (30.2 minutes, P=0.01) versus control.
• No significant sleep duration changes were observed in participants with 'more extroverted and motivated' or 'less motivated and at-risk' phenotypes.
• Intervention effects on sleep duration varied considerably based on baseline behavioral characteristics.

Conclusions:

• Sleep duration changes during physical activity interventions are phenotype-dependent.
• Behavioral phenotypes can help personalize interventions to optimize sleep improvement.
• Targeted gamification strategies may enhance sleep in specific at-risk populations.