Catching Zzz

Posted on June 23, 2025

Originally published June 23, 2025 by UDaily

School of Nursing Associate Professor Xiaopeng Ji (right) and Fatou Marong, who is earning her master’s in health promotion, have created Catching Zzz, a chat-based app that uses artificial intelligence and cognitive behavior therapy-based interventions to improve sleep in autistic teens. Their work is funded by the Maggie E. Neumann Health Sciences Research Fund.

School of Nursing Assistant Professor Xiaopeng Ji is studying sleep issues in autistic teens along with her grad student, Fatou Marong (master’s in Health Promotion). Xiaopeng has developed a chat-based sleep app that will use artificial intelligence to provide personalized sleep coaching. The chatbot will collect sleep data through user input and offer cognitive behavior therapy-based interventions. Preliminary results from a small sample showed improvements in sleep efficiency and severity of insomnia. Her work is informed by focus groups of autistic teens and their parents, who will bring valuable insights to help develop the app/intervention further. Her project is funded by the Maggie E. Neumann Health Sciences Research Fund.

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