D575 Task 2 Behavior Change Project Example

Lights Out at 10:45, Six Nights a Week: A Twelve-Week Behavior Change Project on Sleep Regularity Using the Transtheoretical Model and Implementation Intentions

Student Name

Leavitt School of Health, Western Governors University

D575: Health Psychology, Task 2

Course Instructor

Month Day, Year

Lights Out at 10:45, Six Nights a Week: A Twelve-Week Behavior Change Project on Sleep Regularity Using the Transtheoretical Model and Implementation Intentions

Introduction

My personal statement of health identified short, irregular sleep as the point where most of my health problems meet: tension headaches, afternoon caffeine, borderline blood pressure and a low tolerance for stress. This paper describes a twelve-week behavior change project aimed at that point. It sets a SMART goal, explains the health psychology theory that guided the plan, describes the strategies used, reports what happened week by week and reflects on the lessons, including the strategies I would drop, keep or add next time.

Target Behavior and SMART Goal

I chose sleep regularity rather than sleep length because the timing of sleep was the part I could control. My children's school start time and my job fix my wake time at 6:15 a.m. My bedtime varied from 11:30 p.m. to 1:15 a.m. on weeknights, and on weekends I slept until nine or later. Research supports focusing on regularity: in a study of undergraduates tracked for 30 days, those with irregular sleep and wake times had lower academic performance and a later circadian rhythm than regular sleepers, even when total sleep was similar (Phillips et al., 2017).

SMART goal: For twelve weeks, I will have lights out by 10:45 p.m. and get up by 6:45 a.m. on at least six of seven nights each week, recorded in a sleep diary each morning. This goal is specific and measurable, achievable because it moves my bedtime about an hour earlier, relevant to the problems identified in my health statement and time-bound at twelve weeks.

Theoretical Framework

Transtheoretical model. In the transtheoretical model, people change in steps rather than all at once, passing through precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance, and it proposes that different processes of change help at different stages (Prochaska & Velicer, 1997). At the start of this project I was in preparation: I intended to change within the month and had already moved my textbook out of the bedroom. The model guided my strategies. In preparation, commitment and planning matter most; in action, replacing the old behavior and changing the environment matter more; in maintenance, the task is preventing relapse.

Implementation intentions. Good intentions often fail at the moment of action. An implementation intention is a plan in if-then form: when a named cue occurs, a chosen action follows, and a meta-analysis of 94 independent tests found that forming them improved the odds of reaching a goal by a substantial margin (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006). I wrote three: If it is 10:00 p.m., then I close my laptop wherever I am in the chapter. If I want coffee after 2:00 p.m., then I drink sparkling water instead. If I wake up on Saturday before 7:00 a.m., then I get up and take a walk instead of trying to sleep longer.

Strategies

Environmental change: I moved my phone charger to the kitchen and set a smart speaker alarm at 10:00 p.m. labeled Close the laptop. Time management: I moved two study sessions a week to my lunch break and one to early Saturday morning, replacing late-night study hours. Social support: I told my husband my goal, and he agreed to handle the children's last requests after 10:00 p.m. Self-monitoring: I kept a paper diary by my bed recording lights-out time, wake time, headaches and coffee after 2:00 p.m. Reinforcement: each week I met the goal, I set aside $10 toward a weekend away.

Results

Weeks 1 to 3: I met the goal on four, five and six nights. The misses came on nights with a study deadline. Headaches fell from four afternoons in the first week to two in the third. Weeks 4 to 6: I met the goal every week, with six or seven nights on target. I noticed I was falling asleep faster, usually within 20 minutes. My afternoon coffee dropped from three cups to one on most days. The seventh week was a relapse: my son was sick, a course deadline arrived and I met the goal on only three nights. Weeks 8 to 12: I returned to six or seven nights a week. Over the final five weeks, my average weeknight sleep was 7 hours and 10 minutes, compared with 5 hours and 30 minutes before the project. Headaches averaged one afternoon a week. My blood pressure at a pharmacy kiosk during the final week was 121 over 79, though a single reading is not a reliable measure.

Reflection

What worked best was changing my environment and using if-then plans. Closing the laptop at 10:00 p.m. worked because I did not have to decide each night; the plan decided for me. Moving study time was the hardest change and the most important, because late-night study had been the real cause of late bedtimes. The relapse in the seventh week taught me that the transtheoretical model is right to treat relapse as part of the process rather than failure. Instead of abandoning the project, I used the same strategies the next week, and I added a new if-then plan: If a deadline is coming, then I study at lunch for three days before it.

The biopsychosocial loop I described in my health statement also worked in reverse. Better sleep reduced headaches and caffeine, which improved my mood at work, which made the evening routine easier to keep. I am now in the action stage and moving toward maintenance. My plan for the next three months is to keep the diary three nights a week instead of seven, protect the lunch study sessions and review my sleep at the end of each school term.

If I repeated the project, I would begin by moving study time before changing bedtime, since the first three weeks showed that the goal failed only on nights when coursework was still waiting.

Conclusion

A twelve-week project built on a measurable goal, the transtheoretical model and implementation intentions moved my weeknight bedtime earlier by more than an hour and increased my sleep by about an hour and forty minutes, with fewer headaches and less caffeine. The relapse in the middle proved as useful as the successes, because it showed which plans needed strengthening before maintenance.

References

Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69-119. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1

Phillips, A. J. K., Clerx, W. M., O'Brien, C. S., Sano, A., Barger, L. K., Picard, R. W., Lockley, S. W., Klerman, E. B., & Czeisler, C. A. (2017). Irregular sleep/wake patterns are associated with poorer academic performance and delayed circadian and sleep/wake timing. Scientific Reports, 7(1), Article 3216. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03171-4

Prochaska, J. O., & Velicer, W. F. (1997). The transtheoretical model of health behavior change. American Journal of Health Promotion, 12(1), 38-48. https://doi.org/10.4278/0890-1171-12.1.38