User Experience of a Mobile Application to Reduce Circadian Misalignment in Night Shift Workers

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

5-19-2025

Publication Title

Sleep

Abstract

Introduction: Around 80% of night shift workers experience cir cadian misalignment, leading to excessive sleepiness and decline of safety and work satisfaction. To address this, our team devel oped a mobile application, Arcashift, which tracks users’ circa dian rhythms and makes personalized activity recommendations (i.e. when to avoid light, when to exercise, etc.) based on user goals (i.e. wake up earlier). While the app was built with patient input and has been tested in randomized controlled trial settings, the real-world user experience is not yet well-established. Methods: Night shift workers who habitually slept for less than 6 hours and presented with excessive sleepiness used Arcashift with pre mium access for 30 weeks (n = 28) in a hybrid type I effectiveness-im plementation trial. Upon completion of the implementation period, participants completed a user feedback survey in which participants rated overall experience and ease of use on a 5-point scale ranging from negative to positive and completed 6 short answer questions. Results: Among the users, 64% rated their overall experience as positive (“positive” or “somewhat positive”) and 36% rated their experience as neutral. No users reported a negative (“negative” or “somewhat negative”) experience. Eighty-two percent of users reported Arcashift was easy to use, whereas only 11% and 7% reported neutral and negative ease of use, respectively. Most liked features were the personalized recommendations (39%), the ease of inputting their work shifts and other obligations to the calendar (21%). The most common complaints were the app being unintui tive to use (11%) and the desire for more information about sleep in the app (14%). Other barriers included app glitches when enter ing shifts and other events into the calendar (7%). Conclusion: Participants generally appreciate the individualized approach of Arcashift. The app was well received but modifi cations may be needed to further improve the user experience. Future directions include the information about improving sleep in Arcashift being made more accessible to the users of the app, as well as continuing to improve and providing great support to night shift workers in adapting to their schedules and decreasing their circadian misalignment.

Volume

48

First Page

A385

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