Persuasive strategies in mobile insomnia therapy: alignment, adaptation, and motivational support

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to reflect on the underlying principles of insomnia therapy in relation to the use of mobile technology and to present a starting point in the design of computerized insomnia treatment. Three general persuasive strategies are presented for the design of a virtual mobile coach that functions as a first intervention for insomnia treatment in a stepped care context. The presented strategies are based on general principles and methods from cognitive behavior therapy and communication theory. In this paper, it is assumed that the motivation to perform the therapy exercises significantly can be improved by individual tailoring to the characteristics and the circumstances of the user. Two of the presented strategies aim at tailoring the intervention: alignment and adaptation; the third strategy, motivational support, aims at the coach's communicative activities to take away motivational blockades. Given the characteristics of the insomnia treatment, it is concluded that mobile and ubiquitous systems are promising monitoring and delivery devices in a first intervention, provided that the information is reliable and that obtrusiveness is minimized.

Towards the usage of persuasive strategies in a virtual sleep coach

“…Recently, Beun (2012) identified three persuasive strategies that may influence the motivation of a coachee in CBT-I: alignment, adaptation, and motivational support. These three strategies and underlying persuasive mechanisms are not gathered into a framework or into guidelines.…”

Talk and Tools: the best of both worlds in mobile user interfaces for E-coaching

“…In the SleepCare coaching process, conversations may contribute to the following persuasive strategies (c.f. [4,14,20]):…”

ICT: Health’s Best Friend and Worst Enemy?

“…For example, musculoskeletal problems can be prevented using persuasive technology (Wang et al, 2014), the problem of obesity is approached similarly (Wang et al, 2014), as are headache (Minen et al, 2016), diabetics (Georga et al, 2014), sleeping problems (Beun, 2013), and social isolation (Chen and Schulz, 2016). So, it seems to be a case of "One size fits all" (Suomi, 1996).…”

“…viii) sleeping problems (Beun, 2013;Nuutinen et al, 2014); ix) social isolation (Cacioppo and Hawkley, 2003;Liu and Baumeister, 2016); and x) an unrealistic world view (e.g., resulting in depression) (Donnelly and Kuss, 2016;Wood et al, 2016).…”

“…However, often they are not clinically validated. Examples include e-coaches that support you with sleeping (Beun, 2013), running, and eating to reduce diabetics (Georga et al, 2014). However, many of these apps use no or only basic biometric sensors (cf.…”