Researchers at Penn's School of Nursing have been focused on several initiatives to address patients' barriers to sleep.
The initiatives range from questionnaires to assess the impact of sleep on behavior to approaches to sleep apnea and insomnia. The professors' work extends past the Penn community to the broader Philadelphia community.
For instance, Nursing School Professor Emerita Terri Weaver developed the "Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire" to assess how sleep affects daily behaviors globally. Nursing professor Amy Sawyer, who was mentored by Weaver, now works with Nursing researchers to address obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia, and other chronic sleep disorders.
More recently, Nursing faculty and students have focused on addressing OSA and insomnia in a range of patient populations, including those who cannot sustain current treatment, those with neurological conditions, and those who have a relationship with gun violence. To achieve this, they have been engaging in community outreach and conducting research.
In the past, OSA has been managed by using continuous positive airway pressure machines — a treatment that feeds pressurized air into a mask to keep a patient's airways open. Nursing professor Alexa Watach and Penn Medicine doctor Charles Bae have established a program that patients can contact over text messaging to fix issues with CPAP machines, and Sawyer has assisted claustrophobic patients in becoming more comfortable with the mask.
Weaver has also looked beyond CPAP machines for patients who "can't tolerate" them. She began a clinical trial that led to the Food & Drug Administration approving the use of Zepbound injections to treat OSA in 2024.
"Not only did patients lose weight, the number of times that the patient stopped breathing decreased,” Weaver wrote in the Penn Nursing announcement. “So some patients may not have need for CPAP anymore. Patient quality of life improved as well.”
Beyond CPAP, researchers have sought to address insomnia without pharmaceuticals in Philadelphia and beyond.
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Penn Nursing PhD student Augustine Cassis Obeng Boateng has been working with teenage populations in Philadelphia along with Watatch. Their focus is on spirituality, particularly in individuals who have been affected by weapons.
Insomnia is also prevalent in patients with neurodevelopmental or neurodegenerative conditions. Nursing School professor Nan Hodgson initiated a study with other faculty to implement a structured routine for patients with dementia that included cognitive and physical activities. Her team found an increased quality of life for patients who underwent the regimen.
