A co-designed program for better sleep in Australian First Nations adolescents: protocol for the Let's Yarn About Sleep adolescent sleep health program.

Abstract

The first-ever comprehensive report on the sleep health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (hereafter referred to as First Nations Australians) highlighted an 18% prevalence of poor sleep in First Nations youth. While sleep health is important across the lifespan, adolescence is a critical life stage with increased vulnerability to poor sleep. In adolescents, pubertal changes, social and academic commitments, and peer pressure significantly increase the risk of poor sleep, which often results in social and emotional well-being (SEWB) issues. In First Nations adolescents, high rates of SEWB issues demand effective prevention and management strategies. Evidence from non-First Nations adolescents suggests that timely prevention, identification, diagnosis, and management of poor sleep help reduce the risk and severity of SEWB issues in First Nations adolescents. A research program is proposed to be called "Let's Yarn About Sleep," which will co-design, deliver, and evaluate a tailored sleep improvement program for Australian First Nations adolescents (12-18 years). Co-design workshops will be conducted with First Nations community Elders, parents and carers, youth, and First Nations service providers to develop the sleep health program. The program will also include training Aboriginal Youth Workers (AYWs) to deliver the sleep health program. The program evaluation will be based on a mixed methods design, using self-reported (survey tools and focus group discussions) and technology-based measures (actigraphy data) to measure changes in First Nations adolescents' sleep and SEWB. The evaluation will focus on the impact of training AYWs on program delivery and uptake.