Researchers studied whether a short behavioral program could help teenagers with irregular and insufficient sleep. The program, called the Sleep Promotion Program (SPP), included education about sleep and one individual session with a clinician. It was compared to simply monitoring sleep. The study involved 40 adolescents aged 13 to 15 who wore activity trackers to measure their sleep patterns.
The main finding was that teens who received the SPP program showed more regular sleep schedules. Specifically, the difference between when they went to bed on weekends versus weekdays decreased by about 54 minutes. This improvement in regularity was maintained when measured again later. However, the program did not lead to a significant increase in the total amount of time they slept each night.
It's important to be cautious about these results. The study was small, with only 40 participants. The finding about improved sleep regularity came from an analysis of secondary outcomes, not the main goal the study was originally designed to test. Also, this objective measurement of sleep duration did not show an increase, which differs from some earlier studies that relied on what teens reported themselves. This suggests that making sleep more regular might be an achievable first step, but more research is needed to understand if it leads to better health for teens.