Digitally-delivered cognitive-behavioural therapy for youth insomnia: A systematic review
Open accessAbstract
Sleep disturbance is common among young people, with consequences for academic, emotional and behavioural development. Cognitive-behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is efficacious, yet it is costly and not available to many who need it. Digitally-delivered CBT-I (eCBT-I) has the potential to overcome these barriers. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify studies which report on the efficacy or effectiveness of eCBT-I for young people with sleep disturbance. Electronic databases were systematically searched and three studies met inclusion criteria. Two studies used the same online intervention for adolescents with insomnia symptoms, while the other was conducted in a college sample of individuals who opted into a stress-management study. Results showed that eCBT-I improved sleep efficiency, sleep quality, sleep-onset latency and total sleep time with effect sizes ranging from 0.17–1.30 (Cohen's d). This suggests that eCBT-I is a promising intervention for young people, but more studies are needed to verify the conditions under which it is most effective.
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Currently, there are no digital CBT-I programmes that are commercially available for youth.
“Currently, there are no digital CBT-I programmes that are commercially available for youth.21”
From Pilot evaluation of the Sleep Ninja: A smartphone application for adolescent insomnia symptoms (2019) · cites this paper as [21]
The Results (Studies meeting inclusion criteria; page unavailable) describe a commercially available online CBT-I program, “Insomnia Relief,” tested in university students. Because the review includes that student sample among its studies of young people, it contradicts the claim that no such program is commercially available for youth. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThis is the first study that the authors are aware of that has evaluated app-delivered CBT-I in young people, and only the second study that has tested mobile phone delivery of CBT-I, the first study being conducted in adults with positive effects on sleep outcomes.
“This is the first study that we are aware of that has evaluated app-delivered CBT-I in young people,21 and only the second study that has tested mobile phone delivery of CBT-I, the first study being conducted in adults, with positive effects on sleep outcomes.48”
From Pilot evaluation of the Sleep Ninja: A smartphone application for adolescent insomnia symptoms (2019) · cites this paper as [21]
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“Currently, there are no digital CBT-I programmes that are commercially available for youth.(21) The overall objective of this study was to evaluate a newly developed digital CBT-I programme for adolescents with sleep difficulties.”
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- Authors
- Werner-Seidler, A., Johnston, L., & Christensen, H.
- Affiliations
- Black Dog Institute (AU)
- Venue
- Internet Interventions
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-03
- Volume
- 11
- Pages
- 71-78
- ISSN
- 2214-7829 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6084877
- OpenAlex
- W2791909052
- Cited by
- 36
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4
- FWCI
- 0.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Internet Interventions (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UNSWorks (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Medical Research Council
- National Health and Medical Research Council (1056964)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, digital mental health interventions, sleep disorders, adolescents, university students, sleep efficiency, sleep latency, sleep quality, stress management
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