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Show HN: Sleepio - how I cured my insomnia, turned into software.

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Re: Show HN: Sleepio - how I cured my insomnia, turned into software.

#21

Post by JofArnold »

phames wrote: post #17
rane wrote: post #15

Is there a free alternative using the same methodology? Sounds interesting, but £49.99 is way too much for me right now.

Well, the techniques are out there in the literature, but it's how they are tailored to your own situation - and more importantly how you actually deliver positive behaviour change, rather than just info - that's the real challenge that we're trying to address at a price less than the £600 you'd need to pay for a course of face to face therapy. We're going to try a lower price point ongoing subs model to avoid that i…

Have you tried anchoring against that £600 price in the copy/design? Could be compelling.

Re: Show HN: Sleepio - how I cured my insomnia, turned into software.

#24

Post by phames »

JofArnold wrote: post #21
phames wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the techniques are out there in the literature, but it's how they are tailored to your own situation - and more importantly how you actually deliver positive behaviour change, rather than just info - that's the real challenge that we're trying to address at a price less than the £600 you'd need to pay for a course of face to face therapy. We're going to try a lower price point ongoing subs model to avoid that i…

Have you tried anchoring against that £600 price in the copy/design? Could be compelling.

So - we've tried to be strict on limiting our messages, and we've developed these based on iterative testing - with users on the site, but also on the street with strangers (shoving the pack under their noses and asking what they think it is!).

So it's always been a candidate, but other messages seemed more important, largely because it seems that most people think poor sleep -> sleeping pills, and do not think -> CBT / therapy. As in, it's the immediate frame of reference. That's been confirmed in training/talking to Boots staff, but they have found that reference point useful in making the value case to customers.

Re: Show HN: Sleepio - how I cured my insomnia, turned into software.

#26

Post by phames »

minikomi wrote: post #23

Wow.. The "Program" model seems like it would work for a lot of things - diets, exercise, study... Thought about making it a platform?

Yes that's the vision! That when you have a problem, you just 'visit The Prof', and he gives you a blended programme to help you. Sleep is a good starting point, since it is a) socially acceptable to talk about, and b) is highly co-morbid with other problems - a good way in to health in general.

A limitation of our current media-rich approach however is the cost of adapting content - we took a short term cheap, long term expensive approach... :)

Re: Show HN: Sleepio - how I cured my insomnia, turned into software.

#28

Post by phames »

tokenizer wrote: post #25

Why wouldn't you use sleep.io as the default?

Hmmm because our primary target (middle aged women) are not that web-savvy i guess, and the .com is the default TLD. We bagged sleep.io when it first went on sale but haven't considered using it as the default.

To ask the opposite (and possibly stupid) question - why would you make sleep.io the default?

Re: Show HN: Sleepio - how I cured my insomnia, turned into software.

#29

Post by phames »

sneak wrote: post #27

Starting with "At what time do you normally get in to bed?" to this Non-24 sufferer living in Germany is sort of like opening with "Enter your ten digit phone number" or "What is your ZIP code?"

The thing we've wrestled most with (and haven't yet cracked) is how to accept time entry in a way that is unambiguous to even the least confident users, and also encompasses the range of quanta we need to manage (from mins to many hours). We've tried a few different solutions but 24hr dropdowns result in the least comprehension errors!!

How would you do it if you were us?

Re: Show HN: Sleepio - how I cured my insomnia, turned into software.

#30

Post by minikomi »

phames wrote: post #26
minikomi wrote: post #23

Wow.. The "Program" model seems like it would work for a lot of things - diets, exercise, study... Thought about making it a platform?

Yes that's the vision! That when you have a problem, you just 'visit The Prof', and he gives you a blended programme to help you. Sleep is a good starting point, since it is a) socially acceptable to talk about, and b) is highly co-morbid with other problems - a good way in to health in general. A limitation of our current media-rich approach however is the cost of adapting content - we took a short term cheap, long…

Man, good luck. It's a head smackingly obvious yet simple idea.. some more: quitting smoking, learning a language, cooking at home.. :)
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