Sleepsight

Health

Sleepsight

People living with psychosis often experience problems with their sleep, particularly when symptoms worsen.

Sleepsight is an innovative research study taking place in South London which uses wearable and mobile technologies to study the links between sleep, activity and symptom levels in psychosis.

Sleepsight was funded by the Medical Research Council, and received ethical approval from the London Dulwich Research Ethics Committee.

Methods

Activity tracker

Participants were given a modern activity tracker to wear on their wrist, day and night, for the duration of the study.

The watch measured activity levels and sleep, and sends data to a smartphone using wireless technology.

Smartphone

We provided participants with a Motorola android smartphone, and a mobile contract, at no cost to the participant.

Once a day, participants completed a short questionnaire on the smartphone.

We asked participants to take part in the study for up to 12 months.

Trials Design

We looked for participants who:

Had a psychosis diagnosis (including schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder)
Were aged between 18-65
Were under the care of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Were able and interested in using the study technology for 12 months

Impact

Sleepsight is a unique collaboration between King’s College London, University of Oxford, University of Surrey, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and Audacious Software.

Team members were:

Nick Meyer is a psychiatrist based at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London, and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.
Chris Karr is a software developer at Audacious Software based in Chicago, USA.
Maarten de Vos is Associate Professor at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford.
Derk-Jan Dijk is Professor of Sleep and Physiology and Director of the Surrey Sleep Research Centre.
Richard Dobson is Professor of Medical and Bioinformatics at King’s College London.
James MacCabe is Reader in the Epidemiology of Psychosis at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London, and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.