Sleep Hygiene Intervention on Undergraduate Students' Sleep and Stress

The Impact of a Remote, Brief, Sleep Hygiene Intervention on Undergraduate Students' Sleep and Stress: A Randomized, Controlled Trial

Poor sleep is common among college students and likely contributes to stress. The investigators developed a brief, remotely-delivered intervention and tested whether it improves sleep hygiene and reduced sleep disturbance and stress among undergraduates.

Poor sleep is common among college students and likely contributes to stress. The investigators developed a brief, remotely-delivered sleep hygiene intervention, which is delivered via the internet, and tested in a randomized controlled trial, whether it improves sleep hygiene and reduced sleep disturbance and stress in a sample of undergraduates who report wanting to improve their sleep. This study compares the novel sleep hygiene intervention to an active, matched control condition--sleep education. Baseline and 2-week follow-up questionnaires assess sleep hygiene, sleep disturbance, and stress. ANCOVAs will compare conditions at follow-up, and mediation tests will explore whether the intervention reduced stress through improved sleep.

Condition assignment is done automatically, on-line, to two active experiences. Follow-up assessment is done automatically (on-line measure completion).

This 1-hour on-line intervention presents three sleep hygiene modules, selected randomly from among these six: establishing a bedtime routine, optimizing sleep environment, implementing a sleep schedule, bedtime relaxation, nutrition choices, and exercise habits.

1-hour on-line set of three modules that cover non-skill (non-hygiene) educational topics (sleep research, sleep stages, dreams). This control condition equates for engagement rationale.

8-item measure assesses sleep disturbances over last 7 days (range: 8 to 40; higher scores = more sleep disturbance)

10-item measure of perceived stress over past 7 days (range 0 to 40; higher scores = more perceived stress)

13-item measure of maladaptive sleep hygiene behaviors over last 7 days (range: 13-65; higher scores = worse hygiene)

Inclusion Criteria: Undergraduate students at Wayne State University Self-reported desire to improve their sleep Exclusion Criteria: Graduate students / professional students