Accounting for automatic processes in sleep health

Mead and Irish's (2019) review highlights the absence of behavioural theory from most sleep hygiene interventions. A strong theoretical foundation can bolster the effectiveness, uptake and translation of behaviour change interventions (Prestwich et al., 2014; Rothman, Baldwin, Hertel, & Fuglestad, 2004). Mead and Irish (2019) extolled the virtues of expectancy-value theories, which portray behaviour as an output of deliberation over expected outcomes and the subjective value assigned to those outcomes, as mediated by the formation of intentions to act. These theories may not be the most useful behavioural theories for sleep health research. We believe that attempts to harness behavioural science should move beyond expectancy-value theories and embrace dual-process models, which account also for automatic processes that influence much of human behaviour.