CUHK rolls out scheme to tackle insomnia
It's World Sleep Day on Friday, and Chinese University is using the occasion to highlight Hong Kong's first large-scale programme to promote good sleep health. The university said the 3.5-year scheme aims to provide personalised sleep support to 10,000 people, and they are using cognitive behavioural therapy to treat insomnia. Professor Wing Yun-kwok, chairman of the university's Department of Psychiatry, said sleep disorders, including insomnia, are common in Hong Kong, but they are always overlooked. He said participants would first assess their sleep and mental health through the platform, and then personalised support would be provided in the next step. "We want to set up a digital platform with a stepped care model, and then aim to train nearly 300 sleep coaches to help the citizens to actually use the digital platform as a basis, applying the cognitive behavioural intervention for insomnia, to help them to cope with insomnia," he told RTHK. "This coach will actually help the subject to sleep better, using an augmented kind of digital platform and also one-to-one service." Professor Wing added that sleep health also affects mental health, so he expects by improving the quality of sleep of participants, their mental health would also improve.