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Female and under-represented minority students (URMs) in higher education disproportionately experience sleep disturbances. Incorporating sleep education and other psychological interventions (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia; CBT-I) into college settings might provide a scalable solution, but it is unknown whether such psychoeducational interventions produce equivalent outcomes across groups. We addressed this question with two approaches. First, we identified 36 US-based studies that had student participants and a psychoeducational sleep intervention. Fifteen authors shared data on sleep knowledge, quality, and/or duration separated by gender and URM groups (N = 599). Hedges’ g was computed for each group within each study. Second, we systematically reviewed the content of 21 available programs. We found that, relative to national collegiate data (59.4 % female, 41.5 % URM), females were over-represented (63.4 %) and URM groups were under-represented (23.7 %) in these studies. Interventions improved sleep knowledge (g = 0.69, p<.001) and sleep quality (g = 0.25, p<.001), but not sleep duration (g = 0.13, p = .18). Effect sizes were similar in males, females, URM students, and non-URM students. There were no studies that incorporated financial, social, or neighborhood-level barriers to sleep in students. Future interventions in student groups might be improved by combining individualized, CBT-I-based education while concomitantly addressing environmental/institutional barriers to sleep. 

Abstract Study ObjectivesMuseums are informal learning environments that attract people of all ages, but their potential for providing sleep education is underexplored. We developed interactive pop-up exhibits on sleep and investigated whether they effectively engaged museum visitors, improved sleep-related attitudes, and broadened perceptions of scientists. MethodsActivities were prototyped from 2016 to 2022, and then systematically evaluated across 11 events at a medium-sized museum. Pop-up exhibits included face-to-face interactions with sleep-research trainees, professional signage, video displays, visual icebreakers (inflatable dinosaur fitted to a CPAP mask), handouts (e.g. multilingual sleep tips, stickers, brain-shaped stress balls), and interactive activities to learn about polysomnography (magnetic “electrodes,” 3D-printed brain). Museum staff conducted qualitative evaluations and recorded the frequency and duration of visitor interactions for sleep exhibits and comparison exhibits. A subset of adult visitors completed surveys to inform acceptability, efficacy, and perceptions of scientists. ResultsA total of 1336 people visited the sleep exhibits (32% of total museum visitors), which significantly exceeded size- and location-matched comparison exhibits (12%). Visitors interacted for twice as long with the sleep exhibits relative to comparison exhibits. Survey respondents indicated that they would recommend the exhibit to a friend, that their prioritization of sleep increased, and that they intended to change their sleep habits. More than half of visitors reported scientists as being friendlier and/or more demographically diverse than they previously believed. ConclusionsPop-up museum exhibits show promise as a method to improve sleep prioritization and may have the potential to challenge stereotypes of scientists in local communities.