sleep² x Techniker Krankenkasse: Online Sleep Training for up to 12 Million Insured

Sleep Disorders are a Common Ailment - and a Care Issue

Sleep disorders are a widespread, often underestimated care problem. Population-based surveys show: Around 30% of adults report poor or very poor sleep quality, about 12% meet the criteria for insomnia, and around 80% have deficits in sleep hygiene. In addition, there are typical comorbidities - from depression and anxiety disorders to high blood pressure and metabolic disorders - as well as high consequential costs due to absenteeism, productivity losses, and health expenses for those affected, employers, insurers, and society.

Many affected individuals search in vain for effective help for years; the disorder becomes chronic. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is considered the most effective first-line treatment for insomnia - however, it is hardly available nationwide in traditional care. It is precisely this gap that digital, evidence-based sleep programs fill along the entire path from prevention to therapy.

The Cooperation: sleep² as TK's Exclusive Insomnia Offering

The Techniker Krankenkasse provides its insured with sleep² free of charge for a whole year - as its exclusive digital sleep offering for the indication insomnia. With up to around 12 million insured, the offer reaches one of the largest target groups in the German healthcare system. Access is low-threshold: insured individuals register via TK, are redirected to sleep², and then start directly in the app.

In the TK project, both pillars of care, which often fall apart in everyday life, are represented:

• Prevention with sleep² Pro: For insured individuals who want to sustainably strengthen their sleep and prevent problems.

• Therapy with the sleep² Intensive Program: For insured individuals with pronounced insomnia - the intensive program is certified as a medical device.

   

This dual role makes sleep² an unusually tailored component in TK's digital care portfolio: a low-threshold prevention offer for the broad insured base - and at the same time a therapy offer with medical device status for clinically relevant insomnia. Both from a single source, in one app, with a continuous care path.

What Insured Individuals Get with sleep²

• Individual Sleep Analysis: The program starts with a comprehensive assessment with a few questions about current sleep.
• Detailed Insights through Sleep Tracking: Via a sensor for measuring heart activity, connected sleep trackers, or a personal sleep diary.
• Personalized Sleep Improvement: Based on the analysis, users receive targeted information, personal tips, and suitable exercises.
• Scientifically Based Therapy: A holistic 8-week program for sustainable behavior change - aligned with CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia), the international gold standard of insomnia therapy. 
• Effectiveness from Just 10 Minutes/Day: Just 10 minutes of sleep training per day over 6 to 8 weeks significantly improves sleep quality.

Science as a Foundation

The offer is based on scientifically sound methods for treating sleep disorders. Behind sleep² stands, among others, the sleep researcher Prof. Manuel Schabus, head of the sleep labs at the Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg.

What we do is based on the latest scientific findings. — Prof. Manuel Schabus, sleep² founder

Clinically validated, proven in the field: In a standardized validation study, the measurement methodology of sleep² was tested against the medical gold standard polysomnography and achieved the highest accuracy in direct comparison with common wearables such as Oura Ring 3, Apple Watch Series 9, Fitbit Charge 6, Garmin, and WHOOP 4 (Topalidis et al., 2025). 

The fact that the sleep² Intensive Program is additionally certified as a medical device underscores the regulatory maturity of the offer. This means that sleep² meets exactly the requirements that a major payer like TK places on a digital care offer: scientific foundation, clinical validation, practical relevance - as well as medical device status for therapy and scalability for prevention.

Recommendation

• TK insured individuals can activate sleep² immediately and free of charge - whether preventively to improve sleep or for existing insomnia via the intensive program certified as a medical device.
• For health insurers, private insurers, and employers, sleep² is a scalable, evidence-based offer that bundles prevention and therapy in a continuous care path.
• Even short, regular sessions are sufficient: 10 minutes daily over a few weeks are enough for a significant improvement in sleep quality.

Source

Techniker Krankenkasse: “Online Sleep Training Against Sleep Disorders” (as of 10.10.2025). tk.de

Validation of the Measurement Methodology: Topalidis et al. (2025), PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/27wun_v1