Sleep Hygiene Practices and Quality Assessment
Summary
Sleep hygiene encompasses the constellation of behavioural and environmental practices that support regular, restorative sleep and mitigate factors that disrupt sleep continuity. Key components include consistent sleep–wake schedules, pre-bedtime routines that promote physiological wind-down, control of ambient light, noise and temperature, and the avoidance of stimulants such as caffeine and nicotine in the evening. Assessment of sleep hygiene and quality draws on both subjective self-report instruments and objective physiological measures. Common questionnaires gauge adherence to hygiene practices and perceived sleep quality, while actigraphy and polysomnography offer quantitative indices of sleep latency, duration and fragmentation. Robust assessment is crucial for tailoring interventions across clinical and non-clinical populations, addressing insomnia, mood disorders and broader public-health concerns. Global trends in modern lifestyles, shift work and digital device use underscore the importance of coherent definitions and standardised measures to advance research, inform clinical guidelines and support educational campaigns that promote population-level sleep health.
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Sleep Hygiene Practices and Quality Assessment publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in sleep hygiene practices and quality assessment across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Sleep hygiene: Modifiable behaviours and environmental conditions designed to promote regular, restorative sleep, including routines, lifestyle choices and bedroom settings.
Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI): A self-report scale quantifying the frequency of behaviours that support or undermine optimal sleep patterns.
Insomnia: A sleep disorder characterised by difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or non-restorative sleep, with associated daytime impairment.
Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI): A widely used questionnaire assessing subjective sleep quality and disturbances over a one-month interval.
References
- Sleep hygiene – What do we mean? A bibliographic review. Sleep Medicine Reviews (2024).
- Poor sleep hygiene practices are associated with a higher increase in sleep problems during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A latent change score model. Journal of Sleep Research (2023).
- Are sleep hygiene practices related to the incidence, persistence and remission of insomnia? Findings from a prospective community study. Journal of Behavioral Medicine (2018).
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