Adolescent Sleep: Exploring Experiences of, and Acceptability of, Whole School Early Intervention

This summary is aimed towards adolescents. It has a Flesch-Kincaid score of 64.9. This means it is readable from ages 12 and upwards.

Research has shown sleep problems impact adolescents across the world. Because sleep problems are common, we need to understand how to help adolescents with sleep. The first aim of this thesis was to understand adolescent sleep experiences. The second aim was to look at the acceptability of a school sleep program given by healthcare staff. This is part of the UK governments aim to improve adolescent health and wellbeing.

The first chapter is a review of adolescent sleep experiences. This included 22 studies looking at views of sleep and what adolescents wanted help with. The review used ‘thematic synthesis’, a process which looks for themes across different people’s opinions. Six main themes were found. How important adolescents view sleep was mixed; some said sleep was important, others said it wasn’t important. Adolescents also talked about things that helped their sleep and things that made it worse. Because the studies were mostly good quality, the review findings are more likely to be helpful. The review suggests adolescents should be helped to relax their body and manage their thinking at night to help their sleep. It also suggests adults should value sleep more and set a good example of healthy sleep to adolescents.

The second chapter looked at how helpful a school-based sleep program is for adolescents. This program was put together by Educational Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs). Their job is to work with schools to help with young people’s health and wellbeing. The study went to five schools where adolescents took part in a sleep program run by the practitioners. These adolescents filled out a survey which asked questions about their sleep and wellbeing, and program feedback. In the survey, two thirds of adolescents said they had some trouble with sleep. They also said the program improved their understanding and made them want to improve their sleep. Some of the adolescents surveyed then took part in an interview to ask them more about the program. They said the program was good because it was interactive and because they could trust the EMHP. Overall, the EMHP sleep program was acceptable to adolescents, and they said it should be continued.

Together these chapters give an overview of adolescent sleep experiences and how they feel about early intervention. Both chapters show many adolescents experience poor sleep. They also show how important adults are in helping them with sleep. Parents and professionals need to talk to adolescents more actively about sleep and offer support. School sleep programs appear to be helpful in doing this and are something adolescents find acceptable. More studies are now needed to understand if the program has longer-term effects as well. They are also needed to understand if adolescents who are older or from different backgrounds also find it helpful.