SheSleep is the world’s first sleep app designed especially for women to help address issues such as insomnia, hormone imbalance and overall health. Health Tech World heads to Iceland to speak to its founder and CEO Erla Björnsdóttir.
Women are more than twice as likely to suffer from insomnia than men, and many sleep patients are women following childbirth or during the menopause.
To address this sleep crisis among women, SheSleep has launched to provide a holistic solution to womens’ sleep issues.
Founder and CEO, Erla Björnsdóttir, a psychologist with a PhD in medicine focussing on sleep and sleep disorders, specialises in the cognitive behavioural treatment of insomnia.
SheSleep founder and CEO, Erla Björnsdóttir
“Women are still doing more unpaid labour, and have more stress and hormonal adaptations during the menstrual cycle, yet sleep has been really understudied in women’s health,” said Björnsdóttir at Iceland Innovation Week.
“There is also a lack of tailored solutions for insomnia. The current approach is one size fits all with treatments, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, which I’ve been using for the past 15 years. However, I really felt the need to do something that is tailored to women and their needs.”
Supporting sleep solutions
Björnsdóttir recognised the importance of addressing women’s health and wellness through personalised treatments and tailored services, emphasising that women who are pregnant, have children or are in menopause, and are sleep deprived, are at higher risk of negative complications such as postpartum depression or anxiety.
The creation of the SheSleep app, which has been in development for the last three years, has been supported by Iceland’s Romney’s Technology Fund, as well as through financial support from the Ministry of Innovation.
Containing education about sleep, hormones, menopause symptoms, menstrual and pregnancy cycle tracking, the app also enables users to track their sleep and provides digital insomnia and menopause treatments within the application.
“We received funds from Iceland’s Ministry of Innovation to implement our technical solution into primary care because it is really a good tool for doctors and nurses and psychologists all over the world,” explains Björnsdóttir.
Björnsdóttir says the app uses an evidence-based approach, and research has been carried out on the treatments which have so far yielded positive results.
“Sleep is a huge problem all over the world, around half of adults are not happy with their sleep. So it’s a huge opportunity. There has also been an increased awareness about the importance of sleep,” Björnsdóttir continues. “A lot of the big companies are implementing education about sleep.
“Insomnia is an expensive problem as it can cause a loss of productivity, mistakes, accidents, and more sick leaves. So, it is important to educate your staff about sleep and offer some solutions. We need scalable solutions and technical solutions.
“We are working with many companies here and we really want to work with the big companies and health care clinics all over the world, because they lack the tools.”
Looking to the future
By the end of 2024, SheSleep is aiming to have 1% of women in Iceland subscribed to the app,
and will then launch in the global market.
“We are trying to raise $800,000 now, but we will be raising more in the next funding round,” says Björnsdóttir.
“Iceland is a really good test for the first year, to test the app and to see if the treatments are working or if we need to improve it, and then we will go to the big states. We are looking at Scandinavia, but I’ve been getting attention from other markets, such as India. Then we will look at the UK and USA, and the rest of the world.
“Our long term vision is to be a global app that’s used by millions of women, and we hope to have 200,000 women using it in five years time.
“I have a clear vision, I just want to help women around the world to improve their sleep. That’s what strikes me and motivates me in this and I really think that I have experience and tools to do it. So, I just need the right team and funding.”
Health Tech World met Erla at an event organised by Business Iceland on behalf of Reykjavik Science City.
