A scoping review of digital psychosocial interventions for sleep disturbances in children with chronic health conditions.

Behavioural sleep disturbances are common in children with chronic health conditions. However, face-to-face psychosocial care for sleep disturbances is challenged by access barriers. Although digital health interventions may address these barriers, a comprehensive mapping of the literature on digital psychosocial interventions for sleep disturbances in this population has not yet been conducted. This scoping review provides an overview of the current literature to identify gaps and inform future research. Following the Johanna Briggs Institute's guidelines, nine databases were searched on January 21, 2025. A formal critical appraisal was not conducted due to the inclusion of quantitative, qualitative, and grey literature studies, including protocols, dissertations, and conference proceedings. Data was summarized using absolute and relative frequencies. Our search strategy returned 53 records discussing 37 distinct studies and 21 interventions (15 web-based and 6 telehealth). All interventions incorporated cognitive behavioural strategies and psychoeducation. Over half of the studies included children with neurodevelopmental conditions, the remaining with mental health (n = 6) or physical health (n = 7) conditions. Findings reported high rates of intervention acceptability and feasibility among children and caregivers and limited evidence for intervention effectiveness due to a lack of completed trials. Overall, this scoping review identifies the extent of digital sleep interventions for children with chronic health conditions; however, the absence of a formal critical appraisal of the included records limits further interpretability. Furthermore, several studies lacked an appropriate comparator group, objective sleep measures, or sufficient generalizability. Future studies should incorporate pragmatic interventions, reduce bias in study methodology, and increase participant diversity.