Evaluations

• Restoring depleted resources: Efficacy and mechanisms of change in an internet-based unguided recovery training for better sleep and psychological detachment from work.

  Ebert DD, Berking M, Thiart H, et al. Health Psychology. 2015. 34: 1240-1251. doi: 10.1037/hea0000277

  Summary: Researchers recruited 128 teachers using a mailing list from the German Ministry of Education to examine the effects and mechanisms of change of GET.ON Recovery on insomnia related to stress about work. Participants were randomized to immediately receive GET.ON Recovery or to a waitlist control group. Participants completed assessments of insomnia severity, sleep (e.g. efficiency, quality, effort), perseverative cognitions (work-related stress, worrying), recovery experiences (psychological detachment from work, relaxation, recreational activities), and depression at baseline and post-intervention (8 weeks). Participants in the intervention condition also completed a six-month follow-up. Participants in the intervention group experienced significantly greater improvement in insomnia severity than the control group. More participants in the intervention group achieved symptom-free status based on insomnia severity. Insomnia severity in the intervention group significantly improved from baseline to 6-month follow-up. There were no significant declines in outcomes from post-intervention to six-months, indicating the treatment effects were maintained to follow-up. Perseverative cognitions and sleep effort mediated the effect of GET.ON Recovery on insomnia severity.

  Take Away: GET.ON Recovery may help reduce insomnia severity through addressing work-related stress.

• Log in and breathe out: Internet-based recovery training for sleepless employees with work-related strain – Results of a randomized controlled trial.

  Thiart H, Lehr D, Ebert DD, Berking M, Riper H. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health. 2015. 41(2): 164-174. doi: 10.5271/sjweh.3478

  Summary: Researchers recruited 128 teachers with insomnia and work-related rumination using mailing lists from the German Ministry of Education. Participants were randomized to receive GET.ON Recovery or to a wait list control group to examine effects on insomnia severity and recovery from work. Participants completed assessments at baseline, post- intervention (eight weeks), and six-month follow-up. Insomnia severity was the primary outcome and recuperation in sleep; sleep efficiency; diagnoses of insomnia, depression, and anxiety; worrying; work related rumination; recovery experiences and activities; absenteeism and presenteeism; and user satisfaction were secondary outcomes. Most participants completed all six modules of the intervention (95.3%) and reported that they would recommend it to a friend (91%). Participants in the intervention group has significantly lower insomnia severity than the control group post-intervention. Participants in the intervention group were also more likely to experience a change in insomnia severity and reach symptom free status. Participants in the intervention group had better scores than the control group on all secondary outcomes except one scale of recovery experiences (mastery) post-intervention. Levels of insomnia severity in both groups were similar between post-intervention and six-months follow-up and the intervention still had lower levels of insomnia severity than the control group. More participants in the intervention group than the control group were symptom free at 6 months.

  Take away: GET.ON Recovery may have resulted in lower insomnia severity and better scores on sleep, work-strain, and mental health variables than a wait list control.

• Related Articles

  Log in and breathe out: Efficacy and cost-effectiveness of an online sleep training for teachers affected by work-related strain – Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Thiart H, Lehr D, Ebert DD, Sieland B, Berking M, Riper H. Trials. 2013. 14(169). doi: 10.1186/1745-6215-14-169