Behavioral and Sleep Hygiene Education With Mindfulness Intervention to Improve Sleep Regularity in Adolescents

Overview

Sleep plays a fundamental role in both mental- and physical-health, with good sleep health including adequate duration and quality, appropriate timing, regularity, and absence of sleep disorders. The purpose of this study is to evaluate sleep in adolescent and if brief behavioral and sleep hygiene education with mindfulness intervention improves, sleep timing, sleep duration, sleep quality, anxiety- and depression symptoms. During adolescence extensive physiological changes happen that make it easier for adolescents to stay up later, that may increase the time it may take them to fall-asleep and developing insomnia symptoms. At the same time psychosocial changes happen, the societal changes in the last decade may even have further amplified late sleep in adolescents, with increase in social media use and evening screen-time. As sleep need is not decreased and with adolescents having to wake up at "socially acceptable times" rather than the endogenous sleep offset time, sleep duration may be shortened causing chronic sleep loss and daytime sleepiness. Insufficient sleep in adolescents may affect their daytime functioning, causing fatigue and memory issues, affect school attendance and academic performance, affect mood, mental- and physical health, cause behavioral dysfunction and has been associated with worse health outcomes, adverse risk behaviors and even increase risk for accidents.This study should advance understanding of sleep in adolescents and if this simple interventions can be effective in improving their sleep and mental health.

The study is a prospective cohort-study implementing a brief behavioral and sleep hygiene education with mindfulness intervention in adolescents starting a junior collage (16 years of age). All first year students are invited to participate and those interested, willing to sign a consent and have a consent from a parent/guardian will be included in the study, except if diagnosed with chronic atrial fibrillation or ventricular trigemini, severe uncontrolled asthma, or other pulmonary diseases, or diagnosed with moderate or severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) then will be excluded from participating in the study. Sleep duration, sleep timing (sleep onset and conclusion to calculate sleep mid-time and social jetlag), sleep quality, sleep efficiency and wake after sleep onset will be measured with objective home sleep test for three (3) week-nights and two (2) weekend-nights. Sleepiness, insomnia symptoms, anxiety, depression and chronotype will be evaluated with subjective questionnaires before starting intervention of behavioral and sleep hygiene education and mindfulness training once weekly. After the 8-week intervention participants sleep will be measured, sleepiness, insomnia, anxiety, depression symptoms will be re-evaluated with the same questionnaires and their knowledge of how sleep curtailments may affect health and quality of life will be tested.