What does sleep hygiene have to offer children's sleep problems?

Area of Science:

• Sleep Science
• Behavioral Medicine
• Public Health

Background:

• Sleep hygiene practices are widely discussed but their specific links to sleep outcomes and effective interventions remain unclear.
• Existing literature lacks detailed understanding of how individual sleep hygiene behaviors influence sleep duration, onset latency, and night waking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review sleep hygiene literature and identify themes related to specific sleep hygiene factors and interventions.
• To provide evidence-based recommendations on sleep hygiene practices with strong empirical support and identify areas requiring further investigation.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search across multiple databases (Psycinfo, CINAHL, Cochrane, Ovid Medline, Embase, Web of Science) up to August 2017.
• Inclusion of 44 studies associating sleep hygiene behaviors or interventions with sleep duration, sleep onset latency, or night waking.
• Thematic organization of findings by age group, sleep hygiene factors, and intervention strategies.

Main Results:

• Identified specific sleep hygiene elements and interventions with empirical support for improving sleep duration, onset latency, and night waking.
• Highlighted areas of sleep hygiene that require more research to establish efficacy and optimize interventions.
• Findings were categorized by age group, specific behavioral factors, and intervention approaches.

Conclusions:

• Provides a structured overview of evidence-based sleep hygiene practices, guiding future research and clinical recommendations.
• Emphasizes the need for targeted interventions based on specific sleep hygiene principles to address sleep disturbances effectively.
• Identifies gaps in the current literature, directing future research towards areas with less empirical support.