Sleep in the Hospitalized Child: A Contemporary Review

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Sleep Medicine
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders
• Hospital Medicine

Background:

• Acute illness and hospitalization present significant risks for sleep disruption in children.
• Poor sleep quality can impede recovery, healing, and long-term cognitive and executive functions.
• Hospital environments are often not conducive to promoting pediatric sleep.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the current understanding of healthy sleep in children.
• To identify risk factors for sleep disturbances in hospitalized children.
• To explore non-pharmacologic interventions for optimizing sleep-wake patterns in pediatric inpatients.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of pediatric sleep.
• Analysis of risk factors for sleep disruption in hospital settings.
• Examination of sleep measurement tools and non-pharmacologic interventions.

Main Results:

• Pharmacologic interventions for sleep in hospitals have limited evidence and may negatively impact sleep.
• Non-pharmacologic strategies are considered high-yield for this vulnerable population.
• Understanding healthy sleep is foundational to addressing disruptions.

Conclusions:

• Optimizing sleep-wake patterns through non-pharmacologic means is essential for hospitalized children.
• Further research is needed to support evidence-based sleep interventions in pediatric inpatient care.
• Addressing sleep disruption is critical for neurocognitive development in pediatric patients.