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Sleep and mental illness: an umbrella review protocol

Michael John Norton^1,2, Killian Walsh³, George Bridges⁴

¹REFOCUS Committee, The College of Psychiatrists of Ireland, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland nortonmichael92@gmail.com.

|September 4, 2026

Abstract

Introduction:

Sleep is an important natural process carried out by the human body. It allows the body to rest and the brain to process information attained over the course of the day. Sleep is intrinsically linked to mental health, with those with mental illness more likely to require support in attaining adequate sleep. Recently, the College of Psychiatrists in Ireland's REFOCUS committee has sought to co-design an information leaflet for those with mental illness detailing the latest recommendations from the literature regarding sleep for this population, regardless of whether or not they take psychotropic medications. Given the rapidly expanding research focus on this topic, there are many published systematic reviews on the subject. As such, this proposed umbrella review seeks to collate the existing qualitative-based systematic reviews into sleep and mental illness and synthesise them in order to draw out the key recommendations that can be used by the committee to co-design an information leaflet to be used in practice to support service users with sleep disturbance.

Method And Analysis:

This proposed review aims to explore how service users of mental health services experience sleep with and without the medication used to treat mental illness. An umbrella review that is compliant with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) is proposed. Search terms are stated, and a variety of databases(Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus) will be searched. The search range is from 1 January 2016 to present (2026).

Ethics And Dissemination:

Given that this paper presents a protocol for an umbrella review into sleep and mental illness, no ethical approval was required. The proposed umbrella review has been registered with the repository: PROSPERO on 18 March 2026 where it is freely available. The results of the umbrella review will be disseminated through both a peer reviewed publication and through an information leaflet co-designed by the College of Psychiatrists in Ireland's REFOCUS committee. This protocol and subsequent umbrella review is and will be co-designed by psychiatrists, service users and family members of those with mental illness. Such individuals are named authors on this protocol and will be named authors on the proposed umbrella review as well.

Prospero Registration:

CRD420261343674.

Keywords:

Adult psychiatry Child & adolescent psychiatry MENTAL HEALTH Medicine

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