A cross-sectional descriptive survey of 105 occupational therapy practitioners examined the practice patterns in sleep management within skilled nursing facilities. All participants viewed sleep as essential to address in their settings, since clients frequently reported inadequate sleep, daytime sleepiness, difficulty staying asleep, and situational interruption. Majority of the practitioners reported not screening, assessing, treating, or documenting sleep issues and lack the use of standardized assessments and evidence-based interventions for sleep. Results suggest that practitioners need more training, education, and advocacy skills to promote the role of occupational therapy in addressing sleep management in skilled nursing facilities.

Date Presented 04/02/2022 Sleep disturbances may negatively influence an individual’s mental and psychosocial functioning, with higher education students of particular concern while managing daily stress. This exploratory study examined technology-aided interventions for sleep routine establishment, sleep hygiene, a mindfulness app, and a sensory pillow. Findings suggest improvements in sleep quality and sleep hygiene knowledge, no change in perceived stress, and various changes in objective sleep tracking data. Primary Author and Speaker: Sara Benham Additional Authors and Speakers: Karlie Brogan, Lauren Brown, Caitlin Gladwell, Christine Neu Contributing Authors: Nabila Enam

Many higher education students report sleep problems, further exemplified along with stress at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Promising evidence supports the use of mindfulness programming, although synchronous telehealth sessions have not been adequately examined. This exploratory eight-session telehealth mindfulness program utilized a pretest-posttest quantitative design to examine changes in sleep quality and perceived stress for 16 higher education students enrolled at a health professions-focused university. Sleep quality changes were measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Z=-3.234, p=0.0012, d=-0.808) and perceived stress with the Perceived Stress Scale (Z=-3.102, p=0.0019, d=-0.776), both of which were significant. The results suggest that synchronous mindfulness programming delivered via telehealth has the potential to improve sleep quality and perceived stress in students, however, future studies should consider the use of objective measurements of sleep duration and quality, and a control group.