IntroductionRates of mental health illnesses and burnout are increasing internationally. Therapeutic yoga is increasingly used to improve and maintain physical, mental and emotional well-being and general health. This protocol describes a study to evaluate the effectiveness of an existing primary care group-based therapeutic yoga programme, the Yoga of Stress Resilience programme, which combines yoga and psychotherapeutic techniques, in improving mental health and decreasing burnout. Implementation factors will also be evaluated for potential scale-up.Methods and analysisA pragmatic before–after interventional trial design will be used to study changes in occupational participation and mental health outcomes, including anxiety, depression, burnout, functional impairment, insomnia, perceived stress, loneliness, self-compassion and readiness for change in adults experiencing anxiety and burnout. Repeated measures analysis of variance will be used to determine changes in outcome measures over time. Regression and multivariate analyses will be conducted to examine relationships between participant characteristics and outcomes and among various outcomes. The Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance framework will be used to guide the analyses.Ethics and disseminationApproval from the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board has been waived: project number 7082 (full review waived). Informed consent will be obtained prior to enrolling any participant into the study. All data will be kept confidential. Peer-reviewed publications and presentations will target researchers and health professionals.Trial registration numberThe ClinicalTrials.gov registry (NCT03973216).

Background: Sleep deprivation forms a vicious cycle with chronic diseases. This can be prevented by promoting behaviors conducive to restorative sleep. Although theories of health behavior can inform issues of behavior change, their use in the context of sleep promotion has not been yet comprehensively reviewed. Methods: A scoping review was conducted. Five electronic databases were searched: AgeLine, CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE, and PsychINFO. Additional studies were identified through reference chaining. Studies were included if theories of health behavior were mentioned, referenced and applied in relation to a sleep behavior. Study characteristics and data on theoretical applications were collected using a charting form. Quantitative findings were analyzed through frequency count, while qualitative findings were thematically analyzed. Results: Thirty-five studies with various method designs were included. Most studies targeted adults with obstructive sleep apnea (n=18) and students at risk of poor sleep hygiene (n=12). The application of twenty-two theories of health behavior was identified with three main ways of informing sleep promotion initiatives. Most of the evidence obtained from theoretical applications related to how personal beliefs, intentions to change and social influences can explain adherence to treatment for obstructive sleep apnea or the adoption of healthy sleep hygiene, and how these factors can be changed via theory-based interventions and program evaluations. Conclusions: This study provides public health researchers and health promoters synthesized evidence to deploy theorybased interventions that address many factors shown to influence treatment adherence for obstructive sleep apnea and healthy sleep hygiene. Limited evidence is provided on sleep behaviors pertinent to individuals affected with insomnia.