Long-term effects of brief behavior therapy on sleep habits: Improvement in a work place by correspondence

The long-term effect of mediated minimal behavioral intervention on poor sleepers was examined. Through comparison of the baseline and a 1-year follow-up questionnaire of 36 subjects who participated in a self-help sleep-behavior modification program, total sleep time was increased by 0.49 h (P < 0.05), sleep efficiency was improved by 6.1% (P < 0.05), and both sleep latency and time-in-bed after sleep offset tended to decrease. As for sleep-related behaviors, oversleeping in the weekends improved significantly (P < 0.05), dinner time, relaxation with bath, and regular exercise tended to also improve (P < 0.1). These results suggest that a simple behavioral approach produced long-term effects in the improvement of sleep quality. © 2004 Japanese Society of Sleep Research.