0190 Time-In-Bed Classroom-Based Sleep Challenges: 5-Month Follow-up Outcomes

Introduction Half of college students routinely sleep < 7 hours/night and sleep restriction is often even worse when preparing for exams. In prior work, we found that offering extra credit opportunities to extend one’s nightly time-in-bed during final exam week significantly increased actigraphy-defined total sleep time. In the current work, we repeated actigraphy monitoring in students who took the sleep challenge to investigate the durability of sleep benefits during the following semester. Methods Seventy-four students in Fall 2022 completed baseline questionnaires and actigraphy monitoring 11 weeks before taking a sleep challenge during final exam week (both occurred only on weekday nights). During the sleep challenge, students could earn five extra credit points if they extended their average time-in-bed to 9 hours/night. During the following spring semester (11 weeks post-challenge), students were invited to participate in a follow-up study in which they repeated questionnaires and actigraphy monitoring. There were no extra credit incentives offered during the follow-up monitoring period. Participants provided informed consent and the class instructor was kept blinded to which students participated in the follow-up. Results 62% of participants were still enrolled at the university and agreed to participate in the follow-up study. Those who completed the follow-up study were comparable to those lost to follow-up in demographics, baseline GPA, baseline PSQI, baseline chronotype, and fall semester final exam grade (ps>.05). The initial extra-credit incentive during the fall semester increased total sleep time by 44 minutes on average; approximately half of this benefit was retained during the spring semester. Relative to baseline (6.75 ± 0.84 hours), students showed 24 minutes/night more total sleep time five months later (7.14 ± 0.98 hours; p<.003), without a change to sleep efficiency (82.9% versus 82.5%, p>.05). Actigraphy-defined total sleep time at the spring semester follow-up was statistically comparable to total sleep time during the fall semester sleep challenge week (p>.05). Demographic and academic variables were not significant predictors of individual likelihood of maintaining sleep benefits at follow-up. Conclusion Incentive-based approaches to encouraging healthier sleep habits can have a sustained benefit in student groups. Support (if any) National Science Foundation (1920730, 1943323).