Improving the Sleep of Children’s Hospital Employees Through an Email-Based Sleep Wellness Program

Health care worker sleepiness and fatigue increases the risk of adverse events, compromises patient safety, and increases risk to personal safety and well-being. Addressing sleep problems in large health care institutions through traditional face-to-face interventions can be expensive and difficult to implement to a large employee pool. Little is known about the use of more cost-effective and time-efficient sleep health programs with health care professionals, such as online or email-based sleep interventions. The purpose of this article was to describe the development, implementation, and outcomes of Sleep Smart, an email-based employee sleep wellness program. Sleep Smart was created by a clinical psychologist board certified in behavioral sleep medicine, with consultation and review by an experienced employee wellness coordinator. It consisted of 8 weekly e-mailed modules highlighting different aspects of sleep, paired with online surveys. Participants (employees of a large midwestern tertiary children’s hospital and some spouses [n = 1,333]) completed measures including the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) at baseline and after completing the program. Results indicate a significant improvement in sleep quality, reduction in insomnia symptoms, decreases in daytime fatigue and reported sleepiness while driving, and a reduction in sleep medication usage. Outcomes from this study support additional exploration of cost-effective technology-based sleep health initiatives aimed at health care professionals. Improving hospital employee sleep could positively affect the delivery of care and patient safety. Challenges specific to employee wellness program evaluation and data collection and information for psychologists interested in this work is discussed.