PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Consistent with the NHLBI Strategic Objective to “develop and optimize novel…therapeutic strategies to prevent,
treat, and cure heart, lung, blood and sleep diseases,” this proposal aims to develop, refine, and preliminarily
test a comprehensive, personalized, media-augmented telehealth intervention designed to improve sleep health
among shift workers. Approximately 20% of the US workforce engages in some form of shift work. Shift work is
common in essential occupations (e.g. nursing, transportation, food service). Shift work is associated with
elevated risk for cardiovascular disease, stroke, multiple cancers, metabolic disorders, depression, driving
accidents, medical errors, and all-cause mortality. One modifiable factor that contributes to increased risk for
disease, accidents, errors, and death among shift workers is poor sleep health, defined as the multidimensional
pattern of sleep and wake which promotes optimal health and wellbeing. Poor sleep health in shift workers
manifests during both sleep (e.g., insomnia symptoms, short sleep duration) and wake (e.g., fatigue, sleepiness,
executive function, depression). The proposed study seeks to improve sleep health among shift workers by
developing, refining, and testing a novel intervention, termed Shift Worker Intervention for Sleep Health (SWISH),
which will integrate existing effective interventions into a comprehensive program that addresses the
constellation of sleep health problems experienced by many shift workers. The aims of this research are to: 1)
iteratively refine and finalize the structure and materials of SWISH; 2) examine feasibility and acceptability of
SWISH compared to delayed treatment control in a randomized pilot study; 3) preliminarily test the effect of
SWISH on sleep health parameters; and 4) preliminarily test the effect of SWISH on wake time functioning. The
proposed research plan will be the first step towards building an intervention that can contribute to the
improvement and reduce the significant societal burden of poor sleep health among shift workers. This research
has potential far-reaching public health implications, as the sleep health of shift workers has impacts beyond the
individual (e.g., patients under a nurse’s care). The candidate’s planned training activities are also vital to the
completion of this project. As outlined in the Career Development Plan, a multidisciplinary team of experts will
provide the candidate with advanced training and mentoring in key areas including clinical trial design, conduct,
and reporting, circadian rhythms biology and circadian interventions for shift work, implementation science, and
development of rich, engaging media products to support therapist-led interventions. The training plan includes
strong mentorship, seminars and didactics, formal coursework and institutes, hands-on training, manuscript and
grant preparation, and attendance at scientific meetings. The proposed research project leverages the
candidate’s rigorous prior research and clinical training in sleep health assessment and interventions while
providing necessary additional training to set the stage for the candidate to become an independent clinical
investigator focused on increasing accessibility for sleep health interventions in underserved populations.