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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ngan Yin Chan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Interests: sleep and psychopathology; sleep deprivation; insomnia; psychotherapy; digital intervention

Dr. Joey Wing Yan Chan

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor

Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Interests: sleep and circadian rhythm in affective disorders; circadian rhythm and neuropsychiatric disorders; clinical application of chronotherapeutic treatments

Dr. Sijing Chen

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor

Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Interests: sleep health

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sleep disorders are highly prevalent yet often overlooked and neglected. Common sleep problems include sleep deprivation, insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, and circadian disruption, which can occur in any age group. The development of sleep problems could be attributed to multiple factors such as biological, psychosocial, and environmental determinants, with some being highly modifiable. The cumulative effects of sleep disruption have been linked to a wide range of medical and psychiatric illnesses such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, depression, and anxiety. It has been increasingly recognized as a serious public health problem, leading to significantly higher rates of healthcare utilization and expenditures.

Failure to recognize sleep problems not only precludes diagnosis, but might also increase the risk of the subsequent development of mental and physical problems. It is essential to understand the determinants and consequences associated with sleep problems, so as to inform and develop effective prevention and early intervention to reduce the future health risk.

This Special Issue of Healthcare seeks original articles, commentaries, review, and short reports which focus on the determinants and health outcomes associated with sleep disorders.

Dr. Ngan Yin Chan
Dr. Joey Wing Yan Chan
Dr. Chen Sijing
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

sleep disorders
sleep deprivation
insomnia
circadian disruption
obstructive sleep apnea
risk factors
consequences
intervention

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 863 KiB

Open AccessArticle

School-Based Sleep Education Program for Children: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

by Si-Jing Chen, Shirley Xin Li, Ji-Hui Zhang, Siu Ping Lam, Mandy Wai Man Yu, Chi Ching Tsang, Alice Pik Shan Kong, Kate Ching Ching Chan, Albert Martin Li, Yun Kwok Wing and Ngan Yin Chan

Healthcare 2023, 11(13), 1853; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/healthcare11131853 - 26 Jun 2023

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Abstract

Insufficient sleep contributes negatively to child developmental processes and neurocognitive abilities, which argues the need for implementing interventions to promote sleep health in children. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a multimodal and multilevel school-based sleep education program in primary school children using a cluster randomized controlled design. Twelve schools were randomly assigned to either the sleep education or nonactive control groups. The sleep education group included a town hall seminar, small class teaching, leaflets, brochures, and a painting competition for children. Parents and teachers were invited to participate in a one-off sleep health workshop. Parental/caregiver-reported questionnaires were collected at baseline and 1-month follow-up. A total of 3769 children were included in the final analysis. There were no significant improvements observed in the sleep-wake patterns, daytime functioning, and insomnia symptoms between the two groups at follow-up, whereas the intervention group had significantly improved parental sleep knowledge than the controls (paternal: adjusted mean difference: 0.95 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.18 to 1.71]; maternal: adjusted mean difference: 0.87 [95% CI: 0.17 to 1.57]). In addition, children receiving the intervention had a lower persistence rate of excessive beverage intake (adjusted odds ratio: 0.49 [95% CI: 0.33 to 0.73]), and experienced greater reductions in conduct problems (adjusted mean difference: 0.12 [95% CI: 0.01 to 0.24]) compared with the controls at 1-month of follow-up. Moreover, a marginally significant reduction for emotional problems in the intervention group was also observed (adjusted mean difference: 0.16 [95% CI: −0.00 to 0.32]). These findings demonstrated that school-based sleep education was effective in enhancing parental sleep knowledge and improving behavioral outcomes in children, but not sufficient in altering the children’s sleep-wake patterns and sleep problems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Determinants and Health Outcomes Associated with Sleep Disorders)

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Other

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12 pages, 577 KiB

Open AccessSystematic Review

Effectiveness of Exercise, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Pharmacotherapy on Improving Sleep in Adults with Chronic Insomnia: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

by Danny J. Yu, Francesco Recchia, Joshua D. K. Bernal, Angus P. Yu, Daniel Y. Fong, Shirley X. Li, Rachel N. Y. Chan, Xiaoqing Hu and Parco M. Siu

Healthcare 2023, 11(15), 2207; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/healthcare11152207 - 4 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1701

Abstract

Despite the well-established treatment effectiveness of exercise, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), and pharmacotherapy on improving sleep, there have been no studies to compare their long-term effectiveness, which is of clinical importance for sustainable management of chronic insomnia. This study compared the long-term effectiveness of these three interventions on improving sleep in adults with chronic insomnia. MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase, and SPORTDiscus were searched for eligible reports. Trials that investigated the long-term effectiveness of these three interventions on improving sleep were included. The post-intervention follow-up of the trial had to be ≥6 months to be eligible. The primary outcome was the long-term effectiveness of the three interventions on improving sleep. Treatment effectiveness was the secondary outcome. A random-effects network meta-analysis was carried out using a frequentist approach. Thirteen trials were included in the study. After an average post-intervention follow-up period of 10.3 months, both exercise (SMD, −0.29; 95% CI, −0.57 to −0.01) and CBT-I (−0.48; −0.68 to −0.28) showed superior long-term effectiveness on improving sleep compared with control. Temazepam was the only included pharmacotherapy, which demonstrated superior treatment effectiveness (−0.80; −1.25 to −0.36) but not long-term effectiveness (0.19; −0.32 to 0.69) compared with control. The findings support the use of both exercise and CBT-I for long-term management of chronic insomnia, while temazepam may be used for short-term treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Determinants and Health Outcomes Associated with Sleep Disorders)

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