SPARK Healthy Sleep

SPARK-Healthy Sleep is a digital mental health intervention designed to help college students who may be at risk for psychosis and experience sleep problems. About 1 in 4 college students report psychotic-like experiences (such as hearing voices or feeling paranoid), and these students often have poor sleep quality, which can worsen their mental health symptoms.

This study tests whether a single-session digital intervention can improve sleep and reduce mental health stigma in at-risk college students. The intervention is delivered through a smartphone app and takes about 30 minutes to complete. It includes educational content about mental health being on a continuum (not just "normal" vs "abnormal"), strategies to reduce stigma around seeking help, and evidence-based sleep improvement techniques based on cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.

The study will recruit 115 college students from Indiana University-Indianapolis who score high on measures of psychotic-like experiences and poor sleep quality. Half will receive the intervention immediately (experimental group), while the other half will wait three weeks before receiving it (control group). All participants will complete questionnaires about sleep, mental health symptoms, social functioning, and stigma at the beginning of the study and after two weeks.

The main goals are to determine if the intervention is feasible and acceptable to students, and whether it shows preliminary effectiveness in improving sleep quality, reducing stigma, and improving overall mental health outcomes. A subset of participants will also complete interviews about their experience using the intervention.

This research addresses important barriers to mental health care for college students, including stigma and limited access to services. If successful, this digital approach could provide a scalable way to help at-risk students improve their mental health and potentially prevent more serious problems from developing.