UI employees aim to get more ‘SHUTi’

IOWA CITY - Being sleepy at work - something millions of Americans experience regularly - can be challenging, annoying, or even dangerous.

And according to experts at the University of Iowa, America's 24-hour culture has made the affliction rampant and fueled a slew of sleep-related conditions among today's workers - from simple sleep inefficiency to full-blown disorders.

In response, the UI Employee Assistance Program has started offering guidance for workers wanting to improve their sleep hygiene and habits through a computer-based program called SHUTi.

Short for 'sleep healthy using the Internet,” the six- to eight-week online program aims to train eligible employees - at no cost - to sleep more soundly.

It's based on the principles of 'cognitive behavioral treatment for insomnia,” heralded as one of the most effective methods for addressing the disorder, and introduces a new concept weekly via online sessions. Concepts include sleep restriction, stimulus control, cognitive restructuring, sleep education and relapse prevention.

'You must have air to keep alive …

you must have food to keep alive, and you need sleep to keep alive,” said neurologist Mark Eric Dyken with the UI Sleep Disorders Clinic. 'There is something restorative about it. So what a great thing to offer to keep overall good health habits for employees.”

The SHUTi program is among a growing number of health and wellness-related services available to UI employees, including personal health assessments, one-on-one training with a health coach, reduced recreation membership fees, and weight management support groups.

Last year, 12,477 faculty and staff members - 73 percent of the more than 17,000 UI employees - took the personal health assessment, according to the university's 2014 'live well” report. About 3,120 used university-provided 'personal wellness modules” for things such as weight and stress management, more than 2,600 used on-campus recreation facilities and 738 participated in the health coach service, according to the report.

The university has seen improvements in employee health behaviors since 2010, especially in the areas of good nutrition and stress management, the report shows. And, Dyken said, addressing employee sleep habits could further improvement as fatigue can have trickle-down effects on other aspects of a person's health.

Seeing improvement

Researchers at the University of Virginia developed the SHUTi program with funding from the National Institutes of Health, and it has been empirically validated.

The UI made the program available to select employees on a pilot level in February 2013 to make sure it was a right fit for the campus. About 55 faculty and staff members expressed interest, and 29 qualified to participate, said Maggie Moore, director of faculty and staff services for the UI Employee Assistance Program.

Employees on rotating shifts were not eligible because the program centers around creating more sleep predictability, Moore said. Of those employees who went through the pilot program, most reported 'significantly improved sleep efficiency,” Moore said.

Based on those findings, the university opened it up to all faculty and staff in November.

'We have had a robust participation rate this first year,” Moore said. 'And we are continuing to get the word out.”

Her team is in the process of gathering participation and outcome data.

'But so far, from the aggregate perspective, people are seeing improvement in their sleep,” she said.

Each of the program's online sessions take between 45 and 60 minutes to complete, and users spend the next week incorporating the strategies and techniques they learned into their routines. Participants are asked to complete a three-minute online sleep diary daily, allowing the program to personalize recommendations. Weekly graphs help users understand their sleep progress.

Previous studies have shown that about 73 percent of participants with clinically severe or moderately severe insomnia had no clinical insomnia after completing the program, according to UI officials.

‘Common sense' practices

Since the university opened the conversation with employees about their sleep habits, Moore said, 'It's popping up everywhere.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has called insufficient sleep a 'public health epidemic,” with 18.3 million adults reporting sleep-related difficulties performing employed or volunteer work.

'We all need positive sleep experiences,” Moore said. 'And I think it's something our whole country is becoming more aware of.”

Although not everyone suffers from full-blown insomnia, according to Dyken, it's the general term for the No. 1 sleep disorder that more than 66 percent of adults suffer three or more times a week. Dyken blamed 'our 24-hour-a-day industrialized society” and the demands of the American dream and work expectations for the influx of sleep problems.

'The harder you work the more money you make, but there's a fine line between practicing 12 hours a day and not getting enough sleep,” he said. 'If you fall sleep during the test, it can all fall apart.”

Or worse, Dyken said. Sleep deprivation for workers who drive for a living or work in a medical setting can be catastrophic. And, he said, experts have drawn parallels between lack of sleep and depression, mood disorders, and other health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and cancer.

'It can be one more straw on that camel's back,” Dyken said.

He said the new SHUTi program uses 'good common sense” to tackle an issue facing many on the UI campus, according to Dyken.

'Or at least common sense is what it becomes after someone reminds you,” he said.