P024 Defining sleep hygiene: A scoping review of intervention studies

BACKGROUND: Inadequate sleep is common in the community. For those with subclinical sleep problems there are few interventions for improving their sleep. Sleep hygiene advice has received interest as a possible intervention, however, studies using sleep hygiene as an intervention have been inconclusive. A possible explanation is the inconsistency in sleep hygiene advice in these studies. This scoping review aimed to systematically review studies which used sleep hygiene as an intervention to clarify what individual components comprise “sleep hygiene”. METHODS: Search of 4 databases (EMBASE, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsychINFO) revealed 298 intervention studies. Information pertaining to the use of sleep hygiene as an intervention was extracted. RESULTS: 49% of papers defined sleep hygiene. 66% of papers used sleep hygiene as an active intervention while 34% used it as a control intervention. Sleep hygiene advice included caffeine (mentioned in 36% of papers), alcohol (31%), exercise (31%), food intake (29%), sleep time regularity (26%), light (25%), napping (23%), noise (22%), nicotine (18%), bed restriction (18%), stimulus control (18%), room temperature control (18%), stress (15%), and wind down routine (11%). The specific advice provided about each behaviour varied between studies. Advice also varied depending on the methodology used. Papers using cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia were more likely to include advice about stimulus control and bed restriction and less likely to include advice about light, noise, and room temperature. CONCLUSION: Research incorporating sleep hygiene as an intervention provide different sets of advice hence reducing study replicability. Consensus on what constitutes sleep hygiene is required.