Leveraging digital therapeutics to improve physician sleep: a pilot implementation study

Given the high prevalence of physician burnout, strategies are needed to improve physician mental health and well-being. As sleep disturbance predicts burnout, there is a need to evaluate evidence-based, potentially scalable treatments that target physician sleep and sleep-related health. This pilot implementation study enrolled physicians and gave them access to the Sleep Healthy Using the Internet, a 6-session self-guided cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia treatment program. Among 34 consented physicians, 44.1% engaged at least once with the platform. Among those, 23.5% completed all 6 sessions. Among the 8 completers, the program's session length, time requirements, and ease of access received high satisfaction ratings, and 75% reported they would recommend the program to other clinicians. In exploring effectiveness, Sleep Healthy Using the Internet was associated with reductions in insomnia severity, sleep disturbance, and sleep-related impairment postintervention. This pilot study demonstrates the promise of an evidence-based, web-based cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia program for improving insomnia among physicians.

Registry: ClinicalTrials.gov; Identifier: NCT05289596.

Benge E, Lauffenburger JC, Reid M, Rottapel R, Mehta D, Bertisch SM. Leveraging digital therapeutics to improve physician sleep: a pilot implementation study. J Clin Sleep Med. 2025;21(7):1297-1299.