Sleep timing and health indicators in children and adolescents: a systematic review

Abstract

To continue to inform sleep health guidelines and the development of evidence-based healthy sleep interventions for children and adolescents, it is important to better understand the associations between sleep timing (bedtime, wake-up time, midpoint of sleep) and various health indicators. The objective of this systematic review was to examine the associations between sleep timing and 9 health indicators in apparently healthy children and adolescents 5 to 18 years old.

Studies published in the 10 years preceding January 2021 were identified from searches in four electronic databases. This systematic review followed the guidelines prescribed in PRISMA 2020, the methodological quality and risk of bias were scored, and the summary of results used a best-evidence approach for accurate and reliable reporting.

Forty-six observational studies from 21 countries with 208 992 unique participants were included. Sleep timing was assessed objectively using actigraphy in 24 studies and subjectively in 22 studies. The lack of studies in some of the health outcomes and heterogeneity in others necessitated using a narrative synthesis rather than a metaanalysis. Findings suggest that later sleep timing is associated with poorer emotional regulation, lower cognitive function/academic achievement, shorter sleep duration/ poorer sleep quality, poorer eating behaviours, lower physical activity levels and more sedentary behaviours, but few studies demonstrated associations between sleep timing and adiposity, quality of life/well-being, accidents/injuries, and biomarkers of cardiometabolic risk. The quality of evidence was rated as “very low” across health outcomes using GRADE.

The available evidence, which relies on cross-sectional findings, suggests that earlier sleep timing is beneficial for the health of school-aged children and adolescents. Longitudinal studies and randomized controlled trials are needed to better advance this field of research. (PROSPERO registration no.: CRD42020173585)The pandemic has negatively impacted a substantial portion of the Defence Team. When responding to future crises, it is recommended that leaders of organizations provide additional supports to higher-risk groups and to supervisors who are ideally positioned to support employees during challenging times.