SMART Goals Update

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S.M.A.R.T Goals
  • Specific:
As part of the blogging assignment for PSYC1024, the positive change I will be implementing is improving mood through increasing my duration of sleep. The reason I have chose this is because I have found that it has been difficult to fall asleep and as a result I tend to become moody throughout the day. My goal is to increase positive affect at least 0.2 standard deviations and increase sleep duration by at least 30 minutes by implementing a sleep extension intervention over 4 weeks in combination with a sleep hygiene checklist. 
  • Measurable:
Sleep quality and duration will be recorded in the sleep diary and supported by results of a sleep cycle app called 'Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock'.  Sleep hygiene rule that will be used is as described by Evan et al. (2012). Positive and negative affect will be measured by using the Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) (Watson et al, 1988).
  • Achievable: 
I would like to increase my positive affect by at least 0.2 standard deviations. This is because by Cohens D, the minimum difference that would be of statistical significance is 0.2 standard deviations. Additionally, I would like to achieve an increase in sleep duration of 30 minutes by the end of the 4 week sleep extension intervention. This will be challenging as I have found it extremely difficult for me to fall asleep when I do go to bed earlier than usual. This goal is difficult as it will impact more than just my sleep schedule. I will have to keep in mind various rules aligned with sleep hygiene throughout the day and implement lifestyle changes to ensure that I am able to achieve my sleep extension goal, e.g. no caffeine intake. 
  • Realistic:
By extending the initial intervention described by Dewald-Kaufmann et al. (2014) of 3 weeks to 4 weeks, the goal of achieving a 30 minute increase in sleep duration is realistic. Dewald-Kawufmann et al. (2014) suggests that their intervention could increase sleep duration by 30 minutes if it was extended to a 4 week period whereby the last week would utilise a bedtime that was 1 hour earlier than the bedtime of day 1. Given my current circumstance, I will need make changes in my day time routine to ensure that I give myself extra time before my current bedtime to commence lights off/sleep extension.  This is realistic as my commitments, such as work, all occur during the day.

  • Time:
In total, the implementation of the intervention and sleep hygiene should take 3 hours and 10 minutes a day, with an additional 15 minutes a week. By the end of the 3rd week I hope to achieve an increase in sleep duration of 13 minutes as supported by Dewald-Kaufmann et al.'s (2014) results. By the end of week 4 I hope to achieve an increase of sleep duration of 30 minutes, this has also been supported suggested by Dwald-Kaufmann et. al. (2014), Gruber et al. (2012) and Sadeh et al. (2003).

Strategy & Justification
I have chosen this goal because I find that once I commenced full-time work, I became extremely tired and irritable throughout the day. I would like to have a more positive mood throughout the day. Previous studies suggest that sleep loss may impact an individual's reaction to work events (Zohar et. al, 2005). Furthermore, sleep deprivation in adolescents has been found to impact changes in affect (Talbot et. al, 2010). More specifically, participants within the sleep-deprived condition were found to have lower positive affect than those who were not sleep-deprived. From these findings, it is clear that there may be a relationship between sleep deprivation and mood. As a result, I will be increasing my positive affect by increasing my sleep through sleep extension.

I will be replicating the methods from Dewald-Kaufmann et al. (2014) who found that gradually increasing lights off or bedtime by 5 minutes a night for 3 weeks in combination with sleep hygiene rules as described by Evan et al. (2012), increased sleep by 13 minutes. I have chosen this strategy because Dewald-Kaufmann has found that gradual sleep extension in combination with sleep hygiene is a successful method of increasing sleep duration and reduction in day time sleepiness. 

Dewald-Kaufmann et al. found that they were only able to increase sleep by 13 minutes. These results are different to Gruber et al. (2012) and Sadeh et al.  (2003) who were able to increase sleep duration by 30 minutes. Dewald-Kaufmann et. al. (2014) suggests that this may be the result of reaching a lights off or bedtime of 1 hour before participant's usual bedtime only during the last day of the 3 week intervention. Therefore, Dewald-Kaufmann et al. (2014) suggests that by extending the intervention to 4 weeks whereby a lights off/bedtime of 1 hour before usual bedtime is maintained throughout the last week. This should achieve similar results by Gruber et al. (2012) and Sadeh et al. (2003). Thus, although my goal sleep duration is longer than that achieved by the experiment, it should still be achievable by extending the intervention to 4 weeks as justified by Dwald-Kaufmann et al. 


Sources
https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.wwwproxy1.library.unsw.edu.au/doi/epdf/10.1111/jcpp.12157
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3538572/


https://www-sciencedirect-com.wwwproxy1.library.unsw.edu.au/science/article/pii/S1389945707003061

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