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Benjamin Arias
Dr. Hsu
Psych 473
27 April 2022
Sleep is a basic necessity of life, yet most Americans do not get enough (Sheehan, 2019).
This is especially true amongst college students and young adults in general (Schlarb et. al,
2017). Sleep Deprivation has been found to be associated with memory problems, lack of
energy, inability to focus, weight gain, depression, and anxiety (Chattu et. al, 2018). Sleep
deprivation is the result of not getting enough sleep for a prolonged period of time. There are
several forms of sleep deprivation, but for the purposes of this paper sleep deprivation will be
referring to a pattern of chronic sleep deficiency. Despite the prevalence of sleep deprivation,
studies have shown that behavior modification strategies often show promising results. For
example, one study found that a self implemented behavioral plan consisting of brief sleep
hygiene education, goal setting, daily sleep habit checks, and some operant conditioning showed
promising short term results in a group of office workers (Adachi, 2003). Although there is
evidence to show that lax behavior modification routines can bring about changes, there is also
evidence that a symptom of sleep deprivation is a pattern of habitual control, resulting in people
doing what feels most comfortable in regards to planning and decision making (Chen et. al,
2017). This may explain in part why it is difficult for some to correct their sleeping habits, and
adds to the argument that it has a negative effect on an individual.
For the purposes of this paper, the target behavior will be what time I fall asleep. The
goal will be to establish a routine that guarantees at least 7 hours of sleep. Like many young
adults, I regularly function in a state of sleep deprivation. Working full time while attending
college full time often leaves me with little time for things like homework, chores, self care, and
free time. This effect becomes compounded during especially intense periods of sleep
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deprivation, as performing many of the aforementioned tasks is harder when sleep deprived. The
behavior of staying up late at night is what often leads to this sleep deprivation, as there is not
much trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, however I do not often leave myself enough time
to get a full night's rest. The antecedent of this behavior is a lack of planning resulting in time
meant for sleeping being used for other tasks. The consequence is sleep deprivation.
Sleep in this sense is rather loosely defined as the time at which I lay down for the night.
While a more rigid definition of sleep may provide more accurate data on the effectiveness of the
behavior modification plan, there are few methods of observing and recording when exactly
someone falls asleep that are non intrusive. The time at which I go to bed and wake up will be
recorded in a notebook daily for eight weeks. The amount of sleep will be measured and focused
on over quality of sleep, as there is evidence that not only is too little sleep bad for you, so is too
much (Wild, et. al 2018). There is strong evidence that quality improvements in sleep are more
important than quantity, (Kohyama, 2021). Despite this, establishing a routine that allows for the
possibility of quality sleep.
The first two weeks of the measurements will be used to establish a baseline average
hours of sleep. There will be two weeks of behavior modification implementation. This will be
followed with two more weeks of baseline behavior, and two more weeks of behavior
modification afterwards. This would be done to establish an A-B-A-B model of behavior
modification. During the second two weeks of the behavior modification plan several elements
identified in the literature review will be implemented. For one, the logging of a sleep journal,
similar to the data collected for the behavioral plan, except the quality of sleep is much more
important in this log. This is based on the evidence that it helps establish routines that can be
sustained long term (Adachi, 2003)(Adachi, 2004). Secondly, going to sleep and waking up at
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the same time everyday will be prioritized (Lund et al. 2010). Aversive stimuli such as
electronics, artificial light, and caffeine will be avoided as it is counterproductive to the desired
behavior (Fuller, 2017). The introduction of a new behavior prior to the target behavior is an
integral part of the behavior modification plan. This new behavior would be the pre bedtime
routine. This would consist of a series of actions performed every night in anticipation of going
to sleep, in hopes that the body could be conditioned to associate this behavior with the positive
stimuli of waking up well rested. This would also be paired with a night time schedule. This is to
ensure that the routine does not get replaced with other activities immediately before sleep.
Having a time scheduled to perform this routine every night creates a buffer between activities
such as doing homework or video games that are not relaxing and involve the use of screen time,
a factor already associated with difficulty sleeping. The motivating operations behind not getting
enough sleep is primarily to afford time for urgent school work. Scheduling time to complete
assignments and take care of chores would serve as an abolishing operation that would decrease
the effect deadlines have on sleep.
If this behavior modification plan were to be implemented, there would be several
outcomes to look forward to. For one, the creation of a routine would help assure time for self
care and rest are a priority. The cognitive effects of a well rested mind are not as easily
measured, but could be expected. One of the consequences of sleep deprivation was fatigue
making it hard to complete assignments and trouble memorizing concepts. Both of these are
known to improve with proper sleep hygiene (Walker, 2008). I would expect to see an
improvement in my grades and job performance, as well as feeling more energetic. Another
expected outcome would be that maintaining sleep hygiene would become easier over time as it
becomes a normalized pattern of behavior. I would also expect these changes would be gradual,
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taking time to develop alongside these new habits. Many changes are not ones that can be
objectively recorded without a third party, however even if they go unnoticed initially, it is
expected that they will become more pronounced with adherence to the behavior modification
plan.
Long term I see the need for contingencies to be in place. For one, schedules fluctuate
drastically. One week may demand much more school time than another, or certain times of the
year such as finals requiring much more to be accomplished in a short time period. These
fluctuations in free time and lifestyle demands would require the behavior modification plan to
accommodate them ahead of time. It is likely that backsliding will occur to some degree, but
sleep deprivation is cyclical in nature and can quickly spiral out of control. For this reason both
proactive and reactive contingencies can be implemented in order to ensure that significant
backsliding does not occur.
The first measure that can be put in place to prevent backsliding would be our reactive
contingency. The idea of punishment for a behavior that has its own inherent punishment seemed
unnecessary. There were some punishments however that seemed to be able to serve as a positive
punishment. For one, on days where not enough sleep was had, limiting the amount of hours
spent on electronics as a punishment not only motivates better sleeping habits, but there is
evidence that it promotes healthy sleep (Fuller et. al, 2017). The other punishment implemented
would be eliminating a trip to starbucks. Starbucks being a tasty beverage, is unfortunately also
caffeinated. Similar to the previous punishment, this would be another positive punishment as
caffeines stimulant properties affect sleep negatively. Punishments that follow this idea of
cutting back on activities that do not promote sleep would be enacted reactively to lack of sleep,
hoping to curb the trend.
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The proactive part of the behavior modification plan takes less precedence because if the
plan is working properly, it rewards itself. Still, there are ways to promote following the behavior
modification plan. One simple method of reinforcing healthy sleeping is tracking sleep streaks.
Every additional day in a row where our sleep goals were met would earn another point. This
helps emphasize the frequency of the sleep goals being met. When the streak reaches milestones
such as the first night of being well rested, one week of being well rested, and one month being
well rested, rewards are given. These rewards would consist of desserts . Foods such as acai
bowls, ice cream, yogurt parfaits, etc. These are foods that are already favored, and could
become conditioned reinforcers of healthy sleep patterns.
This behavior modification plan is ideal for incrementing change over several months.
While designed for eight weeks, the habits formed can have long term effects. The habits this
behavior modification plan attempts to enforce affects many dimensions of a person's well being.
As mentioned earlier, the quality of sleep is much more important than quantity. The
establishment of routine sleep has been associated with improved sleep quality in both young
adults and the elderly (Lund et. al, 2010)(Zisberg et. al, 2010). If this behavior modification plan
is successful, it can easily evolve to focus more on improving the quality of sleep rather than just
the quantity. The behavior modification plan has simple yet realistic goals, means, and measures
making it feasible to implement over a much longer period of time that was proposed initially,
and the target behavior being a core part of life ensures that this stays a relevant implementation
no matter how much time has passed or what baseline someone begins at. This also allows for
the entire procedure to be restarted in the case of spontaneous recovery of the previous sleep
patterns.
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If implemented, I believe this behavior modification plan would effectively reach its goal
of establishing a routine 7 hours of sleep every night. The behaviors introduced are based on
evidence, and contingency plans are in place for continuous reinforcement and positive
punishments that all promote better sleep habits. The ease and simplicity of this behavior
modification plan allows for it to be implemented on anyone at any stage of sleep deprivation,
and does not require extensive knowledge of behavior modification.
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