Wake up psychology! Postgraduate psychology students need more sleep and insomnia education

Abstract

Objective: Poor sleep can significantly impact mental health. Despite this, sleep education is absent from the curriculum of many psychology training programs. The current study examined the amount of sleep education delivered within postgraduate psychology programs in Australia. It also developed a new survey tool to capture postgraduate psychology students' experience of sleep education. Method: Two cross-sectional sleep education surveys were emailed to postgraduate psychology programs across Australia via the Heads of Department and Schools of Psychology Association. The first survey explored sleep education from postgraduate psychology program coordinators' perspectives (n = 35; survey response rate = 73%), while the second custom-designed survey examined postgraduate psychology students' perspectives (n =152). Results: Program coordinators reported a median of 2.00 hours (range 0-9) of didactic sleep education delivered within postgraduate psychology programs. Postgraduate students, however, reported receiving a median of only 1.00 hour (range 0-40) of sleep education, with 47% of students reporting no sleep education. Most students acknowledged already working with clients experiencing sleep disturbances (68%), yet they disclosed low confidence and self-efficacy to manage sleep disturbances in psychology practice. Despite delivering minimal sleep education, thematic analysis indicated that program coordinators viewed sleep education as an important topic for trainee psychologists. Program coordinators preferred sleep education to supplement the postgraduate curriculum, preferably online (63%), whereas students chose clinical supervision (61%). Conclusions: Postgraduate psychology training programs deliver minimal sleep education to trainee psychologists in Australia. Enhanced integration of sleep education within the postgraduate psychology curriculum is required to improve mental health outcomes.

Development of a Novel Behavioral Sleep Medicine Education Workshop Designed to Increase Trainee Psychologists’ Knowledge and Skills in Insomnia Management

“…A strong indicator of the workshop's potential efficacy was the observed increase in trainees' sleep psychology knowledge from pre-to post-workshop, with sleep knowledge quiz scores increasing from 60% to 79%, demonstrating significant learning and retention of sleep psychology knowledge. Sleep education studies across psychology [21,27] and medical students [31,43] show low levels of sleep knowledge without specific sleep education training. Whilst knowledge does not equal competency, these results demonstrate that the Sleep Psychology Workshop greatly increased trainees' awareness of the relationship between sleep and mental health and that students retained important information about evidence-based sleep assessment and management skills post-workshop.…”

“…The content for the Sleep Psychology Workshop was designed by the research team, all registered psychologists with expertise in sleep and circadian rhythms, mental health, and/or clinical psychology. The development of the workshop was informed by the completion of a narrative review into sleep education for healthcare providers [20], a survey study into sleep education in graduate psychology programs in Australia [21], and other published sleep education for trainee psychologists and healthcare providers [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. In addition, resources and education guidelines from professional psychology and sleep organizations (e.g., Society for behavioral Sleep Medicine, Sleep Research Society, Australian Psychological Society, Australasian Sleep Association, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, European Sleep Research Society) were reviewed, along with Australian Psychological Accreditation Council guidelines, to ensure competency requirements for graduate clinical psychology students were met [47].…”

“…The study used a shortened version of the Graduate Psychologists Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice Scale (GradPsychKAPS), developed by the research team in a previous study [21]. The original 97-item survey was administered to 152 trainee psychologists around Australia and assesses trainees' sleep education and clinical experiences.…”

“…Despite the strong links among sleep, circadian rhythms, and mental health, sleep education has largely been neglected in mental healthcare training programs around the world [20]. In Australia, almost half of trainee psychologists receive no sleep education regarding assessment, diagnosis, or treatment for sleep and circadian rhythm disturbances during graduate school [21]. The story is similar in the U.S., with only 31% of clinical psychology graduate programs offering training in the treatment of sleep disorders [22].…”

“…To address this curriculum oversight, the current study created and piloted a sleep education workshop, called the Sleep Psychology Workshop, targeting trainee psychologists in graduate school. In brief, the workshop was informed by a narrative review of the sleep education for healthcare provider literature [20], sleep education survey research with psychology trainees and educators [21], as well as published literature on other sleep education studies for a range of healthcare students and providers (e.g., psychologists, medical doctors, neurologists, nurses, pharmacists) [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. The learning objectives for the Sleep Psychology Workshop were to provide trainee psychologists with the introductory skills they need to assess, diagnose, and manage the sleep and circadian rhythm disturbances that are highly prevalent in mental health populations, such as insomnia (see Section 4.1 and Figures 2, 3 for workshop details).…”