A systematic review of the effectiveness of sleep hygiene in children with ADHD

ABSTRACT

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often accompanied by sleep problems in children. Sleep hygiene is defined as a set of behavioural, environmental, or cognitive modifications to improve sleep, and is routinely clinically utilised as first-line treatment for insomnia in ADHD. The objective of this systematic review of the literature is to evaluate the effectiveness of sleep hygiene interventions for sleep difficulties in children with ADHD. Sixteen relevant articles met the inclusion criteria, involving 1,469 participants, with a mean age of 9.6 years, across 6 countries. Fifteen studies found that sleep hygiene interventions were effective in improving sleep, while one did not show any significant improvement. Definite conclusions on the effectiveness of the interventions are difficult to draw due to the limited number of studies and a high risk of bias. There is growing evidence to support the use of sleep hygiene interventions to improve sleep quality in children with ADHD and sleep disturbance. However, well-conducted clinical trials are required to strengthen the evidence.

KEYWORDS:

• Sleep hygiene
• behavioural
• ADHD
• children

Acknowledgments

All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Funding

No funding was secured for this study. No financial relationships relevant to this article are reported by any author.