0157 Sleep Icebreakers and Behavioral Change: If You Could Tell People Only One Thing About Sleep, What Should It Be?

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Insufficient sleep is widespread in the general population, but education and outreach can combat this problem. Informal learning settings, like museums, provide unique opportunities for educating a local community. However, in such settings, engagement with the content relies on the topic’s ability to immediately incite interest. Therefore, we developed and tested a series of sleep “icebreakers” (brief, informal facts) to determine their effectiveness in eliciting interest in sleep science and encouraging behavioral change. Methods Five hundred and twenty-one participants were recruited via the local museum (n=103) and Amazon Mechanical Turk (n=418). Participants viewed eight sleep icebreakers (randomly-selected from a bank of 16 icebreakers) and rated whether they knew it already, if they found it interesting, and if it made them want to learn more. Participants also completed questionnaires on demographics, sleep health/attitudes, and future intended sleep behaviors. Results Both the museum member and general population samples showed substantial interest in sleep science, regardless of age, gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, neighborhood disadvantage, prior sleep knowledge, and prior sleep health/attitudes. The most effective icebreakers related to REM sleep behavior disorder, sleep in Alzheimer’s disease, unihemispheric sleep, dreaming, and sleep state misperception. Importantly, the more the icebreakers interested participants, the more likely they were to formulate a specific plan to change their sleep behaviors (OR: 1.55, p = .001), express willingness to post to social media platforms (OR: 1.46, p < .01), and indicate willingness to donate to an exhibit on sleep (OR: 2.51, p < .001), even after controlling for psychosocial, sleep health/attitudes, and demographic measures. Conclusion If you could only tell someone one thing about sleep, there are a lot of good options. This interest in sleep science was enjoyed by individuals regardless of psychosocial, educational, and demographic backgrounds, and the icebreakers encouraged half of participants to form an intention to change their sleep behaviors. Coupling icebreakers with opportunities for personalized learning, and providing structure to formulate specific plans to change sleep behaviors, are promising directions for sleep health outreach efforts. Support (If Any) National Science Foundation (1920730 and 1943323)