Better Sleep, Better Work: How a Digital Therapy Program is Transforming Workplace Mental Health
New study shows that combining sleep therapy with emotion regulation skills dramatically improves insomnia, depression, and anxiety in working adults
Emma, a marketing manager at a Birmingham tech company, had been struggling with sleep for months. She'd lie awake at 2 AM, her mind racing with work deadlines and project worries, then drag herself through the next day exhausted and anxious. Like millions of working adults in the UK, she was caught in a vicious cycle where poor sleep fueled stress and anxiety, which in turn made sleep even more elusive.
What Emma didn't know was that she was about to become part of groundbreaking research that would demonstrate how a novel digital therapy program could break this cycle and transform both her sleep and her mental health.
The Hidden Cost of Sleepless Nights
Insomnia affects about 10% of the general population, but its impact extends far beyond individual suffering. In the workplace, sleep problems contribute to increased accidents, more sick days, reduced productivity, and employees simply going through the motions while physically present but mentally exhausted.
The numbers are staggering: insomnia costs the UK economy approximately £50 billion annually, equivalent to nearly 2% of the country's total GDP. That's the result of 200,000 lost working days each year due to sleep-related issues. Without intervention, experts predict this cost will rise to £60 billion by 2030.
For individual workers like Emma, the personal cost is equally significant. Chronic sleep problems don't just leave people tired; they dramatically increase the risk of developing depression and anxiety, creating a complex web of interconnected mental health challenges that traditional approaches often struggle to address effectively.
A New Approach: Targeting Sleep and Emotions Together
Recognizing that insomnia rarely occurs in isolation, researchers at the University of Warwick developed an innovative program that tackles both sleep problems and emotional regulation simultaneously. Their approach, called digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia plus Emotion Regulation (dCBT-I + ER), represents a significant departure from conventional treatments that address these issues separately.
The program combines proven sleep therapy techniques with skills for managing difficult emotions. The reasoning is straightforward: poor emotional regulation, particularly problems with rumination and worry, often maintains and worsens insomnia. By addressing both issues together, the treatment can be more effective than tackling either problem alone.
"Interventions simultaneously addressing insomnia and emotion regulation are needed," the researchers explained. "This integrated approach acknowledges that insomnia rarely occurs in isolation."
Testing the Program in Real Workplaces
To test their approach, the research team conducted a rigorous study involving 159 working adults recruited through Midlands-based organizations and social media. All participants had at least mild insomnia plus symptoms of depression or anxiety, making them representative of the millions of workers struggling with these interconnected issues.
Half the participants received the new digital therapy program immediately, while the other half were placed on a waiting list, allowing researchers to compare outcomes between treated and untreated groups. This gold-standard research design ensures that any improvements can be confidently attributed to the intervention rather than other factors.
The program itself was delivered entirely online over eight weeks, combining self-guided digital content with four video therapy sessions. Participants spent about an hour per week working through interactive modules covering sleep science, behavioral strategies, cognitive techniques, and emotion regulation skills.
Remarkable Results Across Multiple Areas
The results were striking. Participants who received the dCBT-I + ER program showed dramatic improvements compared to those on the waiting list:
Insomnia improvements were substantial: The effect size for sleep improvements was very large (1.7), meaning the average treated participant improved more than 84% of untreated participants. Nearly half (45%) of those who started with clinical-level insomnia no longer met criteria for the disorder after treatment, compared to just 3% in the control group.
Depression lifted significantly: With an effect size of 1.6, improvements in depression were larger than typically seen with digital treatments specifically designed for depression. About 30% of participants with clinical depression at the start no longer met criteria for the condition after treatment.
Anxiety decreased markedly: Anxiety improvements showed a large effect size of 1.2, with 30% of those with clinical anxiety levels seeing their symptoms drop below the clinical threshold.
Overall wellbeing improved: Participants reported significant improvements in psychological wellbeing, suggesting the benefits extended beyond just reducing symptoms to enhancing positive mental health.
Why This Approach Works So Well
The success of the combined approach appears to stem from addressing the fundamental interconnections between sleep and emotional health. Poor sleep disrupts emotional processing, making people more reactive to stress and less able to regulate difficult emotions. Conversely, problems with emotional regulation, particularly rumination and worry, interfere with the ability to fall and stay asleep.
By targeting both issues simultaneously, the program breaks this vicious cycle at multiple points. Participants learn both practical sleep skills (like sleep restriction and stimulus control) and emotional regulation techniques (like mindfulness and cognitive reframing) that work together synergistically.
The digital format proved particularly effective for working adults, offering flexibility to engage with the program around work schedules and removing barriers like travel time to appointments. The addition of live video therapy sessions provided personal support while maintaining convenience.
The Workplace Advantage
Delivering the program through workplaces offered several unique benefits. It reduced stigma by normalizing mental health support as part of employee wellness. It also made treatment more accessible to people who might not otherwise seek help through traditional mental health services.
The timing during the COVID-19 pandemic may have contributed to the program's success, as many participants were working from home with greater flexibility to engage with the digital format. However, the researchers note that the low dropout rate (just 15%, compared to up to 40% in some digital interventions) suggests the program would likely remain effective in normal circumstances.
Importantly, the program was delivered by trained but non-clinical staff, making it more cost-effective and scalable than traditional therapy approaches. This suggests that effective mental health support can be provided beyond the constraints of traditional clinical services.
Measuring Success: Multiple Perspectives
The researchers used both subjective and objective measures to assess improvements, including sleep diaries completed by participants and wearable devices that tracked sleep patterns. Interestingly, while participants reported dramatic improvements in their sleep quality and duration, the objective measures showed more modest changes.
This discrepancy, common in sleep research, doesn't diminish the significance of the findings. As the researchers noted, "subjective experiences often drive treatment-seeking behavior and influence therapeutic outcomes." For people suffering from insomnia, how they perceive and experience their sleep is often more important than objective measurements.
The fact that participants felt dramatically better about their sleep, even if objective measures showed smaller changes, suggests the program successfully addressed the distressing aspects of insomnia that most impact quality of life.
Applications and Implications
The study's findings have significant implications for how we address mental health challenges in working populations. Rather than treating sleep problems, depression, and anxiety as separate issues requiring different specialists and treatments, this research demonstrates the power of integrated approaches.
For employers, the results suggest that investing in comprehensive mental health programs could yield substantial returns. Better sleep and emotional regulation among employees could translate into reduced absenteeism, improved productivity, and lower healthcare costs, though the current study noted that workplace productivity measures didn't show significant changes immediately after treatment. The researchers suggest that sleep and emotional improvements may need more time to translate into workplace benefits.
For healthcare systems, the program offers a scalable solution to the growing demand for mental health services. By addressing multiple interconnected issues simultaneously through digital delivery, more people can access effective treatment without overwhelming traditional clinical services.
Looking Forward: The Future of Digital Mental Health
While the results are promising, the researchers acknowledge several limitations that future studies should address. The participant group was predominantly white and female, limiting generalizability to more diverse populations. The study also occurred during the unique circumstances of the pandemic, which may have affected results.
Additionally, the study only measured immediate post-treatment effects. Longer follow-up studies are needed to determine whether benefits persist over time and whether they eventually translate into improved work performance and reduced healthcare utilization.
The researchers also noted the need to better understand user engagement with digital programs. While overall completion rates were good (73%), more detailed information about which components participants found most helpful could inform future program improvements.
A New Model for Mental Health Support
This research represents a significant step forward in addressing the complex, interconnected nature of mental health challenges facing working adults. By demonstrating that sleep problems, depression, and anxiety can be effectively treated together through accessible digital interventions, it opens new possibilities for both workplace wellness programs and healthcare delivery.
For individuals like Emma, the implications are profound. Rather than seeking separate treatments for sleep problems and anxiety, or struggling through without help, effective support can now be delivered conveniently and comprehensively through innovative digital programs.
The study's success also challenges traditional boundaries between different types of mental health treatment. Rather than treating symptoms in isolation, the future may involve more integrated approaches that address the root connections between different aspects of psychological wellbeing.
The research demonstrates that a relatively brief, digitally-delivered program combining sleep therapy with emotion regulation skills can produce dramatic improvements in insomnia, depression, and anxiety among working adults. With effect sizes larger than typically seen in digital mental health interventions, the approach represents a significant advance in making effective treatment accessible to those who need it.
For the millions of workers struggling with sleep problems and related mental health challenges, this research offers genuine hope. Effective help may be more accessible and comprehensive than previously thought possible, delivered in a format that fits into busy working lives.
As the researchers concluded, the program "emerges as an effective solution to address the high prevalence of insomnia and its impact on the workforce, offering scalability and accessibility beyond traditional methods." For employers, employees, and healthcare systems alike, this represents a promising path forward in addressing one of the most significant public health challenges of our time.
The future of workplace mental health may well involve programs like this one, where the artificial boundaries between different types of psychological distress are dissolved in favor of comprehensive, integrated approaches that address the whole person rather than isolated symptoms. For working adults everywhere, that future can't come soon enough.
Moukhtarian, T. R., Fletcher, S., Walasek, L., Patel, K., Toro, C., Hurley-Wallace, A. L., ... & Meyer, C. (2025). Digital CBT for insomnia and emotion regulation in the workplace: a randomised waitlist-controlled trial. Psychological Medicine, 55, e52.
