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Teensleep Study

Oxford University

ww.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/research/sleep-circadian-neuroscience-institute/research-projects-4/teensleep

HOW THE STUDY WILL WORK

Sleep is the most effective cognitive enhancer we have.- Professor Russell Foster, Principal Investigator

The study will recruit 100 schools across the UK. Schools will be randomised to trial either delayed start-times, sleep education, both, or none. This means the team will be able to assess the effects of delaying the start times and education separately, but also see if both interventions have an even greater effect on academic outcome and well-being.

Researchers will also be monitoring sleep patterns in a sub-sample of pupils in each school. This will be done via telemetric devices worn on this wrist. These ‘watches’ give a pseudo-objective measure of sleep, allowing the team to investigate if sleep length improves as a result of the intervention.

The team will then assess how the interventions affect achievement: via circadian timings or via a decrease in sleep deprivation or both.

Researchers will survey the schools involved to assess physical and psychological well-being. This will reveal any secondary benefits of the interventions as it is well established that sleep has a crucial role to play in mood regulation, physical health and perceived quality of life.