Distance Interventions for Children with Sleep Problems: A Review

Abstract

Sleep problems in childhood are frequent and may cause damage to the children and their families; however, parental orientation appears to be effective in its many new formats, such as the distance treatment. This study aimed to review the literature about behavioral intervention performed by distance to sleep problems in childhood and summarize the main characteristics of such interventions. Searches were performed up to November 2021 in BVS Psicologia ULAPSI Brasil, SCOPUS, and PsycINFO, using the key words: sleep problems, insomnia, nighttime fears, behavioral intervention, behavioral treatment, treatment, intervention, sleep, behavior, child, children, infant, mobile phones, smartphone, app, telephone, online, internet, bibliotherapy. We included 14 studies. The main results indicate that interventions were implemented between 2 and 12 weeks, the most reported procedure was pre-sleep routines, and semipresential interventions that required some presential contact were the most frequent. Written educational information about sleep through bibliotherapy and telephone contacts were the most used tools to implement the remote component of interventions. Ten studies indicated improvements on children’s sleep, and secondary results (parental sleep and/or mental health) were also reported among studies. Therefore, our findings suggest that distance interventions for childhood sleep problems are promising, but future research is still needed