Effects of a sleep hygiene text message intervention on sleep in college students

Objective: To test the effectiveness of a text-message intervention to promote sleep hygiene to improve sleep in young adult college students. Participants: A convenience sample of undergraduate students from one Southwestern university (n = 96), 18-26 years old, recruited in August 2015. Methods: A 2-group pretest-posttest experimental design assigned participants to receive biweekly text messages about sleep hygiene or healthy behaviors for 6 weeks. Survey questions addressed sleep knowledge, sleep hygiene, self-efficacy for sleep hygiene, and sleep quality at baseline and posttest. Results: Though not significant, sleep quality, sleep hygiene, and sleep knowledge improved in both groups. Conclusions: Self-efficacy for sleep hygiene is a modifiable factor that may serve to improve sleep quality. Sleep quality improved in both groups. Text messaging is a feasible approach to delivering an intervention to promote healthy behaviors among young adults.