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Sleepless in Chennai: The Consequences of Sleep Deprivation Among the Urban Poor

Last registered on December 11, 2017

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Sleepless in Chennai: The Consequences of Sleep Deprivation Among the Urban Poor

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0002494

Initial registration date

December 08, 2017

Last updated

December 11, 2017 2:40 PM EST

Location(s)

Country

India

Region

Chennai

Primary Investigator

Name

Mattie Toma

Affiliation

Harvard University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Frank Schilbach

PI Affiliation

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Heather Schofield

PI Affiliation

University of Pennsylvania

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Gautam Rao

PI Affiliation

Harvard University

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Pedro Bessone Tepedino

PI Affiliation

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2017-10-23

End date

2021-05-01

Keywords

Health, Labor, Welfare

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

D900, I120, I300, O0

Secondary IDs

Abstract

The urban poor in developing countries are tired: noise, heat, pain, and physical discomfort all interfere with their sleep. Low-income adults in Chennai, India, sleep on average just over five hours a night (based on our pilot studies). How does insufficient sleep affect how these individuals think, work, and make decisions? Can simple and scalable interventions improve sleep among the poor in a cost-effective way? We investigate these questions in a field experiment in Chennai. The randomized controlled trial aims to: (i) evaluate three interventions (devices to improve the home sleep environment; incentives to sleep more; naps at work) to improve sleep among the urban poor; (ii) estimate the causal impact of improved sleep on cognitive function, health, and economic outcomes.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Rao, Gautam et al. 2017. "Sleepless in Chennai: The Consequences of Sleep Deprivation Among the Urban Poor." AEA RCT Registry. December 11. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2494-1.0.

Former Citation

Rao, Gautam et al. 2017. "Sleepless in Chennai: The Consequences of Sleep Deprivation Among the Urban Poor." AEA RCT Registry. December 11. http://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2494/history/23876.

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Our treatment intervention is aimed at improving participants' sleep and includes the following components:

1) Participants assigned to the "sleep treatment" group (further details in the experimental design section) receive sleep aids and encouragement to sleep more. Sleep aids include pillows, mattresses, fans, blankets, bedsheets, cots, earplugs, and eyeshades; participants may choose to bring some or all of these devices home with them for the duration of the treatment period.

2) Participants assigned to the "sleep treatment + incentives" group are exposed to the same intervention as those in the "sleep treatment" group and are also financially incentivized to sleep more; these participants are paid for the amount that they sleep beyond a given benchmark.

3) Participants assigned to the "nap treatment" are provided the opportunity to take a half-hour afternoon nap in a comfortable and save environment in the lab.

Intervention Start Date

2017-10-23

Intervention End Date

2019-05-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Sleep duration (our first stage outcome); productivity, labor supply, and earnings in our data entry task; decision making outcomes (specifically, performance on risk and social preferences tasks, susceptibility to defaults and salience effects, savings decisions, and performance on a task measuring present bias); and performance on the psychomotor vigilance task (a proxy for sleep deprivation). Details are provided in the pre-analysis plan.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Cognitive function (performance on Hearts and Flowers and Corsi lab tasks); subjective wellbeing; quantity and quality outcomes in the data entry task. We will also collect data on health outcomes (blood pressure, depression and others), which are described in our registration at ClinicalTrials.gov with the title "Chronic Sleep Deprivation Among the Poor: A Lab-in-the-Field Approach"

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The proposed RCT involves 450 participants recruited to work full-time for 28 business days in a data-entry job. After an eight-day baseline period, participants are randomized into the following three groups, with an equal number of participants in each group:

(1) Control Group: Participants in the control group continue to work in our lab office but do not receive the interventions described above;

(2) Sleep Treatment: Participants in the sleep treatment group receive sleep aid devices (mattresses, ear plugs, etc) as well as daily encouragement to sleep more;

(3) Sleep Treatment + Incentives: Participants in the sleep treatment + incentives group are exposed to the same interventions as participants in the sleep treatment but are also receive a daily financial incentive based on how much they increased their sleep over a given benchmark.

Each of the above three groups is cross-randomized (50-50) with a "nap treatment". The nap treatment group will be assigned to take a half-hour nap each afternoon. Those not receiving the nap treatment will be randomized into either taking a break or working during the same time slot.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

The randomization of participants to treatment groups will be performed by a computer and will by stratified along baseline sleep and productivity.

Randomization Unit

The randomization is performed at the individual level.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Sample size: planned number of observations

450 participants

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

1/3 of the 450 participants are assigned to each our three sleep treatment arms: 150 control participants; 150 sleep treatment participants; 150 sleep treatment + incentives participants.

1/2 of the 450 participants are assigned to our nap treatment: 225 nap treatment participants.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Our MDE is .13 hours, or 7.8 minutes, of additional sleep per night. This represents an approximately 2.4% increase over baseline sleep levels.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB

INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARDS (IRBs)

IRB Name

Institute of Financial Management and Research, India

IRB Approval Date

2014-06-19

IRB Approval Number

"Chronic Sleep Deprivation Among the Poor: A Lab-in-the-field Approach"

IRB Name