Baseline Sleep Literacy, Habits, and Perceptions Among Primary School Children: Foundations for a MAIEC-Guided Community Intervention in Sleep and Mental Health

Sleep plays a fundamental role in children's cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development, and inadequate sleep hygiene is increasingly recognized as a modifiable risk factor for mental-health vulnerability. <b>Background/Objectives:</b> This article presents the child level baseline component of a broader quasi experimental study grounded in the Community Assessment, Intervention and Empowerment Model (MAIEC). The aim was to characterize Sleep Habits, sleep-hygiene knowledge, and sleep-related perceptions among third-grade children from two primary-school communities in northern Portugal, prior to the implementation of a MAIEC-based community intervention. <b>Methods:</b> Regarding the reporting, only the baseline child level assessment of the study presented in the manuscript, a structured questionnaire, integrating the Portuguese version of the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ PT) and questions about Sleep Habits and sleep-hygiene literacy were administered to 40 children. Three composite indices were computed: Sleep Literacy (SLI), Sleep Habits (SHI), and Sleep Symptoms and Perceptions (SSPI). <b>Results:</b> Baseline results revealed heterogeneous Sleep Habits and variable sleep-hygiene knowledge. Children in the experimental community demonstrated higher scores across all indices, with the difference in Sleep Habits (SHI) approaching statistical significance (<i>p</i> = 0.052) and moderate effect sizes observed overall. No sex-based differences were found. <b>Conclusions:</b> These findings identify modifiable behavioral and knowledge-related sleep determinants linked to emotional regulation and mental-health risk. This article reports baseline child-level data from a broader MAIEC-guided study, with the quasi-experimental intervention currently underway and community empowerment already assessed. Future work will present the evaluation of community processes. Overall, these baseline results provide a structured diagnostic foundation for a MAIEC-based community intervention aimed at promoting healthy sleep and strengthening mental-health resilience in primary-school settings.