A Pilot Randomized Control Trial Demonstrating the Efficacy of the SIESTA Sleep Hygiene Intervention

Shorter sleep duration can negatively impact children’s daytime functioning and health. Latino children living near urban areas in the Mainland U.S. and Island Puerto Rico (PR) can be exposed to urban poverty and sociocultural stressors that challenge optimal sleep outcomes. Interventions to improve urban Latino children’s sleep health should consider families’ cultural background and environmental context to enhance acceptability and feasibility. This work describes our stepwise, multimethod approach to adapting a culturally and contextually tailored “School Intervention to Enhance Latino Students’ Time Asleep (SIESTA)” for sixth- to eighth-grade Latino children residing in Greater Providence and San Juan and findings from a pilot randomized control trial (RCT) demonstrating SIESTA’s efficacy. Results indicated high acceptability and greater improvement of sleep duration and behaviors in SIESTA versus control participants. The SIESTA shows potential to improve sleep outcomes in urban Latino middle schoolers. Results will inform a large-scale RCT to evaluate SIESTA’s effectiveness and barriers to implementation.