Research on Enhancing Sleep Treatments in Usual Practice (REST-UP)
Sleep problems are common in mental health services, but evidence-based sleep interventions are not always routinely available, accessible, or easy to use in everyday care.
REST-UP is a programme of research exploring how sleep support can be improved for people experiencing mental health difficulties, and for the services that provide care.
Across three linked studies, phase one of REST-UP brings together the views of mental health professionals, people with lived experience, and existing research evidence to understand what helps or prevents sleep support from being delivered and used in routine mental health services.
Help us shape our research - Join the REST-UP network!
Before you read about our work we just want to let you know that we are bringing together people with lived experience of mental health difficulties, mental health professionals, researchers, service leads, and partner organisations to help shape the next phase of REST-UP.
Sign up to hear about opportunities to get involved, project updates, and future events.
What work have we done so far?
01
Systematic review of barriers and facilitators to improving sleep in mental health settings
This study brings together existing research on what helps or prevents sleep interventions from being used in mental health settings. The review examines both patient and professional perspectives, including barriers to engaging with sleep support, challenges in delivering interventions, and factors that may make sleep support more acceptable and feasible in routine care.
Findings from the review will help identify the key changes needed to improve access to evidence-based sleep interventions for people experiencing mental health difficulties.
02
Understanding barriers to better sleep over time: A longitudinal study with people living with mental health difficulties
This study explores what helps and hinders people living with mental health difficulties when they try to improve their sleep. Using a mixed-methods design, we used the Theoretical Domains Framework to identify and quantify key barriers to improving sleep over time.
We also carried out qualitative interviews to understand these barriers in more depth, adding patient perspectives and lived experience to the survey findings. Together, the study highlights the practical, emotional, cognitive, and social factors that can shape whether people feel able to engage with sleep improvement strategies.
03
Mental health professional perspectives on improving sleep in mental health services
This qualitative study explores mental health professionals’ views on using sleep interventions in mental health services. Through interviews with practitioners, the study examines what helps or prevents sleep from being addressed in routine care, including issues such as training, confidence, time, service pressures, resources, role boundaries, and perceptions of patient need.
The findings highlight practitioner perspectives on how sleep support could be made more feasible, acceptable, and sustainable within everyday mental health practice.
04
The next step: Developing adapted sleep support for mental health services
This future phase of REST-UP will use findings from the earlier studies to develop an adapted sleep intervention for people experiencing mental health difficulties. Working with people with lived experience, mental health professionals, and service decision-makers, the project will explore how evidence-based sleep support can be made more acceptable, accessible, and feasible for use in routine mental health services.
The intervention will be co-produced to reflect the needs of patients and practitioners, with attention to issues such as flexibility, delivery format, language, burden, support needs, and how sleep support can fit within existing care pathways.
We need you!
We are building a collective group of people with lived experience, health and mental health professionals, service leads, researchers, students, charities, community organisations and partner organisations to help advance the aims of REST-UP.
Together, we want to shape the next phase of the project, share knowledge, identify priorities, and support the development of better sleep support for people living with mental health difficulties.
Join our network to receive project updates, hear about events, and find out about opportunities to contribute to this work.