0203 Time-In-Bed Classroom Challenges: Incentivizing Undergraduate Students to Improve Sleep During Final Exams Week

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Late bedtimes and all-nighters are ingrained into student culture, especially during final exam week. We previously found that extra credit incentives “to sleep 8 hours” encouraged longer sleep durations in small-sized classes. The current work investigated whether a modified approach—extending one’s time-in-bed—was scalable to larger-sized classes and dependent on the size of the incentive. Methods Across two studies, 129 undergraduate students completed baseline actigraphy and sleep diary monitoring early in Fall 2021 or Fall 2022. At the end of the semester, students could opt to take a time-in-bed challenge to earn large-sized (8 points; Study 1) or medium-sized (5 points; Study 2) extra credit on their final exam if they maintained an average time-in-bed of nine hours (or average total sleep time of eight hours). A smaller-sized extra credit (2 points) could be earned if the overall benchmarks were not met but one still improved on their baseline sleep duration by 20 minutes or sleep efficiency by 3%. Participants provided informed consent and the class instructor was kept blinded until after exams were graded. Results Most students attempted the time-in-bed sleep challenge (Study 1: 86.79%; Study 2: 92.11%). In Study 1, large-sized extra credit encouraged a 66 minute/night improvement in actigraphy-defined total sleep time from early-semester baseline (6.72 ± 1.18 hours) to final exams week (7.82 ± 0.89 hours; p<.001). In Study 2, a medium-sized extra credit opportunity improved actigraphy-defined total sleep time by 46 minutes/night from baseline (6.69 ± 0.80 hours) to finals week (7.46 ± 1.12 hours; p<.001). The interaction with incentive size was non-significant (p>.05). Sleep efficiency was similar across timepoints in Study 1 (83.6 ± 5.35 to 82.8 ± 5.18, p>.10) and Study 2 (82.9 ± 6.1 to 82.9 ± 6.47, p>.10). Students did not have to sacrifice total sleep time to perform well on their final exams (rs<.10); interestingly, students with higher sleep efficiencies performed better on their final exams (r=.28, p<.05). Conclusion The all-nighter culture of final exam week can be overcome by creating incentives for students to prioritize nighttime sleep. Support (if any) National Science Foundation (1920730 and 1943323).