Community-Level Daytime Sleepiness: Social-Environmental Determinants, Consequences, and Impact of Sleep Apnea
Condition: Daytime Sleepiness
MeSH terms: Disorders of Excessive Somnolence; Sleepiness
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The purpose of this study is to examine daytime sleepiness in a community context. This
      includes examining sleepiness in a large sample in terms of social/behavioral/environmental
      predictors and health-related outcomes, as well as examining the role of a sleep education
      intervention in a smaller sample for promoting healthy beliefs/attitudes about sleepiness.
    

Detailed description: 
      Increasing attention has focused on the role of sleep in public health. Approximately 1/3 of
      Americans sleep ≤6h per night, an amount that has been deemed sub-optimal by the American
      Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society, the National Sleep Foundation, American
      Thoracic Society, and the American Heart Association. These consensus statements echo
      findings from many reviews on this topic. This is alarming, given epidemiologic and
      experimental research showing that reduced sleep time is associated with a variety of
      negative health outcomes including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and mortality.
      As such, short sleep represents an unmet public health problem. The community-level daytime
      impacts of insufficient sleep are still not well characterized, though.

      Previous studies have associated habitual short sleep duration with important adverse
      cardiometabolic outcomes, including weight gain, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease,
      stress, etc. They suggest that those that report short sleep may be more likely to experience
      functional impairments and are less likely to engage in behaviors consistent with a healthy
      lifestyle. A proposed mechanism of these relationships is that insufficient sleep duration
      triggers metabolic disturbances and increased immune response, resulting in appetite
      dysregulation, adverse cardiovascular outcomes, and resultant disease states. In addition to
      cardiometabolic effects, behavioral and functional consequences of short sleep have been
      well-documented. For example, short sleepers are more likely to exhibit difficulties
      initiating and/or maintaining sleep, daytime sleepiness, drowsy driving, and other
      impairments as a result of sleep loss. Laboratory studies have extensively documented
      neurocognitive and behavioral effects of sleep loss, including increased objective
      sleepiness, impaired vigilance using computer-based psychomotor assessments, and deficits in
      working memory, decision-making, and executive function, as assessed using standardized
      neuropsychologic and neuroimaging techniques. Although much of the focus on sleep as a public
      health issue has been on insufficient sleep at night, relatively little has focused on the
      role of daytime sleepiness. The investigator's previous work has shown that the prevalence of
      daytime tiredness is approximately 18-19% among working-age adults in the US. This is in line
      with other studies, which have estimated the population burden of excessive daytime
      sleepiness to be between 10-25%. Daytime sleepiness is a well-documented result of sleep
      deprivation, but it can also be a result of sleep apnea, sleep fragmentation, and other
      causes. The role of daytime sleepiness as an important dimension of sleep that impacts public
      health has not been sufficiently explored. The present study aims to examine daytime
      sleepiness in a large community sample in terms of social/behavioral/environmental predictors
      and health-related outcomes.
    

Intervention name(s): Track 1; Track 2
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Intervention + Follow-up; Wait list + Intervention
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Crossover Assignment
Intervention model description: 4-WEEK TRACKS All 28 participants will be randomized to one of two 4-week tracks (N=14 each). The study design (crossover) dictates that all participants must complete a questionnaire at identical time points; therefore, participants in track 2 will perform a baseline questionnaire at the same time as track 1 participants perform a baseline questionnaire for their intervention. Also, participants in track 1 will complete the follow up at the same time as track 2 participants perform a baseline questionnaire for their intervention.
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Basic Science
Keywords: Daytime Sleepiness; Environmental Determinants; Sleep Beliefs; Sleep Attitudes; Educational Intervention; Focus Group; Epworth Sleepiness Scale