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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

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
December 11, 2017, 2:40 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
India
Region
Chennai

Primary Investigator

Name
Mattie Toma
Affiliation
University of Warwick
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Frank Schilbach
PI Affiliation
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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PI Name
Heather Schofield
PI Affiliation
University of Pennsylvania
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PI Name
Gautam Rao
PI Affiliation
Harvard University
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PI Name
Pedro Bessone Tepedino
PI Affiliation
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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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. https://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

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?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
NA
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
Harvard University Human Research Protection Program
IRB Approval Date
2014-06-14
IRB Approval Number
14-2294
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Pre-Analysis Plan

MD5: 8666d6d01136b3d4d60b21210fdc5b75

SHA1: 4706231dfb8d88a80eb45e8cd0553cf3c6b6bb59

Uploaded At: December 08, 2017

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials