An evaluation of a pilot of Teensleep, a sleep education program that aims to improve outcomes for students by improving the quality of their sleep, found no evidence that the program led to improvements in students’ sleep.

The Teensleep program trains teachers to promote good ‘sleep hygiene’ as part of students’ Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) lessons. Teachers deliver a series of 10 half-hour lessons highlighting the importance of sleep for effective learning, as well as providing practical advice for better sleep, such as avoiding caffeine in the evening.

Ten UK secondary schools took part in the pilot funded by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the Wellcome Trust. All Year 10 students received the intervention as delivered by their teachers and completed a sleep quiz and sleep survey pre- and post-intervention. Parents and students were informed about the pilot study and parents could opt-out of schools sharing students’ data with the research team, but not out of student participation in the intervention.

• Overall, the evaluation found there was no evidence that Teensleep improved students’ sleep as measured using a wrist-worn activity monitor before and after the intervention. 
• However, the evaluation did find some evidence of improvements to sleep-related behavior as reported by students, such as napping less during the daytime.

The authors suggested that further work was needed since the collection and analysis of sleep data was challenging. However, teachers and students were already enthusiastic about Teensleep.

Source (Open Access): Robinson-Smith, L., Hugill, J., Merrell, C., Wareham, H., & Ball, H. (2019). Teensleep: Pilot report and executive summary. London: Education Endowment Foundation.