To evaluate the risk of sleep disorders using a mobile application.

Seventy million Americans suffer from sleep disorders, but few are diagnosed and treated due to limited sleep education among healthcare providers and access to sleep experts. We developed a free mobile application to assess the risk of common sleep disorders.

Sleep by Cleveland Clinic™ is an iOS and android mobile application that offers risk assessments for common sleep disorders. It includes the Cleveland Clinic sleep apnea probability score validated by polysomnography (Katzan IL, 2016), Insomnia severity index (ISI) (Morin CM, 2011), total sleep duration, and a validated shift work disorder (SWD) instrument (Barger LK, 2012). Users can access educational resources and nearby accredited sleep centers.

As of August 2024, the application had 5,195 downloads from 5,187 unique users, predominantly female (65.4%), mean (SD) age of 52 (±15) years. Users were employed full-time: 56.6%, part-time: 9.7%, retired: 24.1%, and unemployed: 9.6%. Of those employed, 87% worked day, 4.5% night, 3.3% evening and 5.2% rotating shifts. Regular sleep schedules were reported by 56.2% and sleep aid use by 40.3%. Of 4,188 completed assessments, 2,770 (66.1%) were high risk for OSA, 771 (18.4%) were high risk for moderate-severe OSA. Median (IQR) ISI was 14 (10,19), with 32.9%, 35.8% and 13.6% experiencing mild, moderate or severe insomnia risk respectively. 44.3% of 444 respondents were at high risk of SWD. Median (IQR) sleep duration was 8.1 hours (7.3, 9.0) and 11.9% slept less than 7 hours. 66.5% of 409 respondents found the application easy to use, and 61% of 400 indicated they would discuss their scores with healthcare provider.

Using a free mobile application with validated sleep disorder screening instruments, we found a high prevalence of common disorders. User feedback was favorable. This tool assesses sleep disorder risk at individual and population levels.