The impact of a remote, brief, sleep hygiene intervention on undergraduate students’ sleep and stress: A randomized controlled trial

<b>Objective:</b> Stress among college students contributes to and results from poor sleep. We created a brief, remotely-delivered sleep hygiene intervention and tested whether it improved sleep hygiene and reduced sleep disturbance and stress, compared to a sleep education control condition. <b>Participants:</b> We studied 108 racially/ethnically diverse undergraduates (76.9% females, 18.5% males, 1.9% nonbinary, 1.9% prefer not to disclose). <b>Methods:</b> Baseline and two-week follow-up questionnaires assessed sleep hygiene, sleep disturbance, and perceived stress. ANCOVAs compared intervention and control conditions at follow-up; mediation analyses explored whether the intervention reduced stress through improved sleep. <b>Results:</b> Compared to controls, the intervention improved sleep hygiene and sleep disturbance (both <i>p</i> < .001, η_p² = 0.21, large effects) and lowered stress (<i>p</i> = .006, η_p² = 0.07, medium effect). Mediation analyses suggest that the intervention reduced stress <i>via</i> improved sleep hygiene and disturbance. <b>Conclusions:</b> Brief, remotely-delivered, sleep hygiene training decreases undergraduates' stress, perhaps by improving their sleep hygiene and sleep quality.