Better Nights, Better Days for Youth is an online sleep education program for adolescents and university students. The project is also extended to adolescents and university students with pain. The self-guided program is comprised of four main sessions and each session is divided into short and interactive lessons.
Sleep problems are evident in young adulthood
Evidence suggests that over half of adolescents are not getting the required about of sleep each night. These problems persist into young adulthood, where only and estimated 11% of university students obtain a good quality sleep. Sleep problems and recurrent pain are often related and twice as many adolescents with recurrent pain report sleep difficulties than their typically developing peers.
Sleep problems impact functioning
A decline in sleep duration and quality in young adults is of great concern as there are several negative effects on daytime functioning. Sleep deficits puts young adults at risk for mental health disorders and emotional problems including depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and increased moodiness. Inadequate sleep also affects a person’s physical health and cognitive abilities including memory, attention, and executive functioning.
The need for better intervention
Given the number of negative consequences that can result from not getting enough sleep, it is critical to have effective interventions in place targeting sleep practices. The BNBD for Youth program is a combination of psychoeducation about sleep and behavioural recommendations delivered via short and interactive microlearning sessions.
The Program 
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Session 1: What is Sleep The 10 lessons include short and interactive information about the physiology of sleep, how sleep changes in adolescence, and the role of sleep on daily living.
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Session 2: Your Sleep Contains 7 short and interactive lessons that describe the importance of measuring sleep, introduce youth to tracking daily sleep, provide information about common sleep disorders, and guide adolescents to calculate their ideal bedtime.
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Session 3: Healthy Sleep Practices Provides detailed information over 10 lessons about healthy sleep practices and guides adolescents to identify the specific areas that they would like to work on, as well as goal setting for these.
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Session 4: Looking Forward Includes information over 4 lessons to help adolescents anticipate potential setbacks and provides additional resources for adolescents to explore if they are interested in seeking more information beyond the BNBD for Youth program.
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