Re-imagining Behavioral Sleep Medicine: Designing Conversational Sleep Diary and Visualization Tool
Amama Mahmood, Bokyung Kim, Honghao Zhao, Molly E. Atwood, Luis F. Buenaver, Michael T. Smith, Chien-Ming Huang
Published: 2025/9/18
Abstract
The sleep diary is a widely used clinical tool for understanding sleep disorders; however, low patient compliance and limited capture of contextual information constrain its effectiveness and leave specialists with an incomplete picture of patients' sleep-related behaviors. In this work, we re-imagine Behavioral Sleep Medicine (BSM) by designing a voice-based conversational sleep diary and specialist-facing visualization tool. Through this design process, we probed specialists' vision of how conversational agents (CAs) could extend beyond diary intake to enhance behavioral sleep medicine. Our multi-stage approach included: (1) interviews with specialists to identify shortcomings in current use of text-based diaries, (2) iterative co-design of a conversational diary and visualization tool, and (3) focus groups to explore the broader potential of CAs in BSM. This work contributes design insights into how CAs can support behavioral interventions, highlights opportunities and challenges for integration into practice, and expands the design space of CAs for behavioral health.