Effects of sleep education with self-help treatment for elementary schoolchild with nocturnal lifestyle and irritability

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of sleep education with self-help treatment in elementary school children. One-hundred and forty-eight children from two schools in the Hiroshima prefecture participated in this study. Schools provided one group for sleep education and a second group as controls. The sleep class provided knowledge about the importance of sleep and sleep improvement, and was carried out in a quiz form for 20 min for children in the sleep education group. Also, children selected one practice effective for improving sleep, and the selected target behavior was monitored by them for 2 weeks. After the sleep class, the total number of correct answers to sleep-related items in the sleep education group improved from pretreatment to after the class, and was maintained after 2 weeks. After the treatment, participants in the sleep education group showed significant improvements in bedtime and sleep duration. Many sleep-related behaviors associated with being efficient for sleep showed a significant increase. Moreover, their poor sleep and irritability significantly improved. Based on the multiple regression analysis, bedtime and sleep duration were improved through the modification of three sleep-related behaviors including getting up every morning approximately at the decided time, refraining from watching television or videos before sleep, and not taking a nap after coming home. Furthermore, an improvement in bedtime and sleep duration is effective in alleviating irritability. These results suggest that sleep education with self-help treatment can be useful in improving nocturnal lifestyle, poor sleep, and irritability in elementary school children.