Protective and risk factors for adolescent sleep: a meta-analytic review

Effects of the Young Adolescent Sleep Smart Program on sleep hygiene practices, sleep health efficacy, and behavioral well-being

OBJECTIVES

Using a social learning model, the aim of the Sleep Smart Program was to primarily improve sleep health behaviors and secondarily improve academic performance and behavioral well-being.

DESIGN

Randomized control trial for a social learning-based preventive intervention program.

PARTICIPANTS

A diverse group of seventh graders from 2 urban, middle schools were randomly assigned, according to school, to an 8-session Sleep Smart Program (SS = 70) or a comparison group (comparison = 73).

MEASUREMENTS

Sleep patterns, sleep hygiene, and sleep health efficacy; academic performance; and behavioral well-being were assessed at 4 times of measure (baseline, postintervention, 2 follow-up times in eighth grade).

RESULTS

SS seventh graders experienced significantly greater sleep health efficacy, improved physiological and emotional sleep hygiene, more time in bed, and earlier bedtimes vs comparison group. SS (vs comparison) participants also reported a significant decrease in internalizing behavior problems and sustained academic performance. Finally, although not maintained at time 4, SS participants continued to report improved sleep health efficacy at time 3, whereas the comparison group participants' sleep health efficacy declined.

CONCLUSION

The Sleep Smart preventive intervention was effective in improving sleep health efficacy, sleep hygiene, time in bed, and bedtimes; in maintaining grades; and in reducing internalizing behavior problems, yet these changes were not sustained at follow-up.

Advancing a biopsychosocial and contextual model of sleep in adolescence: a review and introduction to the special issue

Sleep problems in adolescence have been identified as an international public health issue. Over the past few decades, notable advances have been made in our understanding of the patterns and consequences of sleep in adolescence. Despite these important gains, there is much about the role of sleep in adolescence that remains to be understood. This Special Issue brings together studies that examine sleep as it specifically pertains to adolescent development and adjustment. In this introductory article, we argue for the importance of grounding the study of sleep and adolescence in developmental science and a developmental psychopathology framework. First, a review of the literature is used to outline a biopsychosocial and contextual model of sleep in adolescence. Second, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is used as an exemplar of the proposed model given the pervasiveness of sleep problems among youth with ADHD and the likelihood that sleep problems and ADHD symptoms are interconnected in complex ways. Finally, a brief introduction to the empirical articles included in the Special Issue is provided, with particular attention given to how these articles fit within the proposed biopsychosocial and contextual model. Along with the framework proposed in this article, the studies included in this Special Issue advance the current literature and point to critical directions for future research.