Adding text reminders to a sleep habit programme did not strengthen sleep habits
Who it’s about: Young adults
- No difference
Text reminders added to nine sleep habit sessions made the habits no stronger than the sessions alone.
Randomised trial of 161 young adults who are night owls · vs the same programme without texts · they rated themselves · ⚠ not yet checked by other scientists
The study
Who took part
161 young adults aged 18 to 30 who are night owls, recruited at UC Berkeley in the US. 72 had the programme alone and 89 had it with texts.
What they did
Both groups had nine weekly coaching sessions on new sleep routines: three of 50 minutes, then six of 30 minutes. For six weeks, the texts group also got a reminder before winding down for bed, a daily yes-or-no check, and reward texts.
What happened
With texts, sleep habits felt no more automatic at the end, or 6 or 12 months later. Both groups said their sleep habits felt much more automatic by the end. But there was no group without the programme, so that gain can't be credited to it. Parts of the paper's text were garbled, though the main results were readable.
Source
Testing the Integration of Habit Science and Learning Theory to Promote Behavior Change: A Habit-Based Sleep Health Intervention (HABITs) for Young Adults with an Evening Circadian Tendency (2026)
DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8735756/v1 (opens in a new tab)
