Effectiveness of the Sleep Island WeChat Mini-Program for Promoting Sleep in Preschool Children

Behavioral sleep problems are common during the preschool years and are strongly influenced by parental sleep-related practices and the home environment. This randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Sleep Island, a parent-focused WeChat mini-program adapted from a theory- and evidence-based parent-child collaborative behavioral sleep promotion program. A total of 122 families with preschool children will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to either the Sleep Island intervention plus routine sleep-health education or a waitlist control condition receiving routine sleep-health education. The intervention will be delivered over 4 weeks. Sleep Island incorporates electronic sleep monitoring, visualization of sleep patterns, individualized sleep-behavior feedback, sleep-health education, and personalized behavioral recommendations. Recommendations are generated using a large language model supported by retrieval-augmented generation from a curated pediatric sleep knowledge base and are reviewed by the research team before release. Outcomes will be assessed at baseline, immediately after the intervention, and at 3- and 6-month follow-up. The primary outcome will be objectively measured child nocturnal sleep duration. Secondary outcomes will include other objective and parent-reported indicators of child sleep health, parental sleep-related practices, sleep environment, behavioral sleep problems, and parental knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, and beliefs regarding child sleep.