TOPLINE:

Teens with late sleep schedules who received personalized sleep coaching slept longer and showed brief improvements in sleep hygiene, but their bedtimes did not shift earlier. Bright light therapy, alone or combined with coaching, did not improve timing or other outcomes.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial to assess whether certain targeted interventions could help advance late bedtimes and improve sleep outcomes in teens.
• They included 176 teens (mean age, 17.7 years) born between 1999 and 2000, from a Finland-based registry. Teens reported going to bed at 1 AM or later 3 or more nights per week, consistent with delayed sleep phase.
• Teens were randomly assigned to receive one of four interventions — information only (active control group); 30 minutes of daily morning bright light therapy; weekly personalized sleep coaching delivered remotely by trained nurses; or a combination of bright light therapy and coaching — over the course of 6 weeks.
• Actigraphy was used to record sleep duration and timing; wrist temperature sensors were used to track 24‑h temperature rhythms and questionnaires were used to assess sleep hygiene, sleep quality, depression, and anxiety.
• Primary outcomes were bedtime and sleep midpoint. Measurements were taken at baseline, immediately after treatment (within 2 weeks), and at 1 year.

TAKEAWAY:

• Teens in the sleep coaching group had a 23-minute increase in sleep duration from baseline to immediately after treatment (P = .026) and a 33-minute increase from baseline to the 1-year follow-up assessment (P = .007); corresponding increases in the control group were smaller. However, sleep coaching did not alter bedtime or sleep midpoint.
• Teens who received sleep coaching had improved sleep hygiene scores immediately after treatment (P = .019), but the improvement did not persist at 1-year follow-up.
• Bright light therapy alone or in combination with coaching did not significantly change bedtime, sleep midpoint, sleep duration, or circadian temperature measures. No intervention changed depression or anxiety scores.
• The proportion of teens with delayed sleep phase increased across all groups at one year but the increase appeared smaller in the group that received bright light therapy and coaching.

IN PRACTICE:

“Supporting sleep regulation should acknowledge this variation and individual primary causes for sleep problems and continue developing personalized solutions that respect adolescent autonomy,” the researchers wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Liisa Kuula, PhD, and Anu-Katriina Pesonen, PhD, of University of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland. It was published online on February 16 in Journal of Adolescent Health.

LIMITATIONS:

The study had a high dropout rate from baseline to 1-year follow-up. A 4-week intervention was likely too short to produce lasting change in persistent sleep problems.

DISCLOSURES:

The study received support from the Research Council of Finland, the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland, and the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation. The authors reported having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.