Combined chronotherapeutic approaches help improve sleep, circadian timing in teens

A short-term intervention combining sleep scheduling, morning bright-light glasses, and evening blue light–blocking glasses proves beneficial in terms of increasing sleep duration during weeknights and shifting circadian timing earlier in adolescents, according to a study.

The study included 86 adolescents aged 16–19 years who reported habitual weekend sleep onset later than 1 am. These participants were randomly allocated to the group that underwent the Sleeping Late Teens Program (intervention,  n=44) or the group that underwent sleep monitoring (control, n=42).

The Sleeping Late Teens Program consisted of a single collaborative, problem-solving session (<1 h), followed by 2 weeks of a personalized sleep schedule that shifted bedtimes and wake times earlier. Participants in the intervention group were instructed to wear morning bright-light glasses for 30–60 min upon waking and amber-tinted blue light–blocking glasses for 2 h before going to bed.

Outcomes included weeknight circadian timing indexed by salivary dim-light melatonin onset (DLMO), actigraphy-measured weeknight sleep duration, and circadian alignment operationalized as the interval between DLMO and midsleep (middle of the nocturnal sleep period).

A total of 80 participants (mean age 17.5 years, 60 percent female) completed baseline procedures (40 in each group) and were included in the analyses. Compared with the control group, the intervention group had statistically significant and clinically relevant improvements in sleep and circadian metrics.

After 2 weeks, melatonin timing shifted earlier by 36 min in the intervention group and shifted later by 9 min in the control group (difference, 45 min; p=0.003). Weeknight sleep increased by 47 min in the intervention vs the control group (p=0.003).

Meanwhile, DLMO-midsleep alignment decreased by 18 min in the intervention group and increased by 8 min in the control group. However, this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.20).