The Turning Words for a Good Night’s Sleep: Developing an Effective Communication Strategy for a Mindfulness-Based Sleep & Media Intervention

Abstract

While researches continue to uncover more each year about the harms of frequent media usage, hours of daily smartphone and other media usage is increasingly the norm starting as early as pre-adolescence in the United States and other developed nations. Known harms for adolescents and pre-adolescents include attentional problems, depression, elevated likelihood of risky behaviors, and decreased and lower quality sleep. Despite knowing much about the harms of usage, there is little research elucidating effective strategies for reducing harms of inevitable use. This study attempts to uncover the most important components of a communication strategy primarily by querying professionals (n=10) through semi-structured interviews working in the areas of mindfulness, sleep, adolescent health, and education — areas chosen by modeling the suggested changes and contrasting approaches with the “Sleepazoid Intervention” of University of Washington’s Garrison Lab. Thematic analysis uncovered three primary themes future researchers and interventionists in media harm reduction and sleep for adolescents are suggested to heed: 1) the importance of immediate relevance to an early adolescent’s life, primarily through augmenting a sense of agency; 2) the need to address the serious perceived social consequences of changing behavior, as well as cultural relevance of communications; and 3) a list of specific strategies deemed most effective for working with early adolescents, especially using visual, partner, and moving exercises. These themes from the interview agreed with key points uncovered in the targeted literature review conducted prior to the interviews, and promise to be essential pillars for adolescent health communication in general and media harm reduction in particular.