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Backlinks: WELL Rider Rewards Design

The importance of sleep for human health is profound and necessary for survival in the short and long term: complete sleep deprivation will lead to death within weeks, while even mildly disrupted sleep drives mortality hazards in the long run [1-4].

To quantify the impact of sleep on mortality for our rewards program, we turn to a survey conducted by the National Sleep Foundation in [5]. An expert panel rated sleep durations for age groups (determined in a consensus process first) and the results were combined into specific recommendations.

Figure 1. Bottom 3 charts from Figure 1 [5].

Our rewards derive directly from these recommendations. We interpolate between 50 points for a sleep length that was rated as appropriate by all panelists (value of 9 on Figure 1) and 0 points for sleep length rated as hazardous for health by all panelists (value of 1 on Figure 1).

References

1. Yin, 2017. Relationship of Sleep Duration With All-Cause Mortality and Cardiovascular Events: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies
2. Shen, 2016. Nighttime sleep duration, 24-hour sleep duration and risk of all-cause mortality among adults: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies
3. Swiss Re, 2020. Is sleep the new blood pressure? Understanding how sleep affects health and mortality for new underwriting methods
4. Cappuccio, 2010. Sleep Duration and All-Cause Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies
5. Hirshkowitz, 2015. National Sleep Foundation’s sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary

Backlinks: WELL Rider Rewards Design

Really great review here: https://www.longevityadvice.com/best-sleep-trackers-apps/

https://www.healio.com/news/primary-care/20210915/too-little-or-too-much-sleep-may-increase-mortality-risk#:~:text=Overall%2C%207%20hours%20of%20sleep,CI%2C%201.36%2D1.61).

Source: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2783717?utm_campaign=articlePDF&utm_medium=articlePDFlink&utm_source=articlePDF&utm_content=jamanetworkopen.2021.22837

The association between CVD mortality and sleep was increased in men sleeping 5 hours or less and 9 hours or more and in women sleeping less or more than 6 hours, the researchers reported. The association between cancer mortality and sleep was increased in men sleeping 8 hours or more, while in women, it was present in those sleeping 10 hours or more. Lastly, the association between mortality from other causes and sleep was increased in men sleeping less or more than 6 hours and in women sleeping 8 hours or more.

https://www.munichre.com/us-life/en/perspectives/wearables/sleep-mortality.html#:~:text=Self%2Dreported%20hours%20of%20weekday,%2C%20age%2C%20and%20smoking%20status.

Based on our analyses, we conclude there is strong evidence that sleep can effectively segment mortality risk even after controlling for age, gender, and smoking status. High risk individuals may be identified by abnormally low or high self-reported hours of daily sleep.

Although it is not feasible to verify sleep through labs as carriers do for other common sources of applicant misrepresentation (smoking behavior or BMI), many consumer wearables are capable of tracking sleep (or at least proxying hours of sleep), and this data could be collected from applicants. Common sleep tracking options include Fitbit devices, select Garmin fitness devices, and third-party apps compatible with Apple Watches.

Sleep cycle is the app I usually give as an example of why we [MassMutual Wellness] don’t want to build that capability ourselves (sleep tracking from phone sensors (accelerometer, etc)) and instead can just rely on the data in Apple Health (that sleep cycle writes). As they mention, they are very very popular.

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