A recent randomized controlled trial published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry examined whether a motivational group-based sleep intervention combined with text message reminders could improve bedtime habits and sleep duration in adolescents with chronic sleep deprivation. The study included 203 adolescents who reported sleeping <7 hrs per night on school days.

Participants were randomly assigned to either an intervention group, which received four weeks of motivational interviewing-based group sessions along with personalized nightly text reminders, or a control group that received no intervention. The key components of the intervention included (1) basic sleep knowledge and motivational enhancement, (2) identifying the discrepancy between current maladaptive behavior and their values by reviewing individual sleep habits/sleep diary, (3) strategies facilitating the implementation of the targeted behavior, and (4) setting specific goal behavior/bedtime based on individual sleep habits.

Results showed that adolescents in the intervention group moved up their bedtime significantly over the course of the study (30-50 minutes on average). These sleep changes were sustained at three- and six-months post-intervention, confirmed by both self-reported sleep diaries and actigraphy data. These adolescents also had reduced daytime sleepiness. However, despite these sleep improvements in the intervention group, both groups remained well below the recommended eight hours of sleep per night.

These findings highlight the potential of motivational interviewing paired with behavioral cues, such as text reminders, to modify adolescent sleep habits. Incorporating similar strategies into school-based health courses may help decrease sleep deprivation. However, additional research is needed to identify interventions that get adolescents to the recommended eight hours of sleep per night.

Reference:
Chan NY et al. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2025. Epub ahead of print. Abstract