Table 2.

Selected quotes from study participants

Pre-intervention insomnia and asthma symptoms “I would wake up in the middle of the night….first of all, I couldn’t even go to sleep, and it would take me about two hours to get to sleep, sometimes three, and I’d fall asleep and I’d get up in the middle of the night. In the morning, I was cranky, very short with people. I just didn’t want to do anything. I was too tired and miserable.” “On a frequent basis, I was having sleep disturbances from my asthma. I would wake up in the middle of the night and would have coughing fits. So I would maybe wake up once or twice a night with asthma symptoms and have to take a rescue inhaler. “The less I sleep, the more my asthma seems to bother me.”

Post-intervention insomnia and asthma symptoms “When I wake up, I feel like a brand new women. I haven’t sleep seven hours straight in who know when. I feel so refreshed.” “I still wake up anywhere from two to four times a night.” “I noticed that I had none of the asthma symptoms at night, and during the day, in general, the asthma was kept under control.” “[My asthma] hasn’t gotten any worse, but it definitely hasn’t gotten any better since doing he program.”

SHUTi program experience “The sleep diary is what I found most helpful, because I never actually paid attention to how I was sleeping, when I was waking up, and that forced me to be accountable and to pay attention to my sleep pattern, when I never did before.” “It helped me understand that I had options and there were things that I could do differently to improve my insomnia, like if I couldn’t sleep, getting up and out of my bedroom and then coming back when I was sleepy. As I began to see progress, it encouraged me to be more committed.” “It was a bit too lengthy where it kinda took my interest away. So, I wasn’t completing a lot of my daily diaries.”

Suggestions for improving the SHUTi program. “If this whole thing was supposed to be something to help me with my asthma, I feel like there should have been a piece to that, too. Like, how are the two [asthma and insomnia] connected and then here are ways in conjunction with your sleep that you can help your asthma.”

“It would have been helpful to have been able to enter information about my asthma symptoms in the sleep diary. This could have helped show a connection between my sleep and my asthma symptoms.”