Impact of sleep on educational outcome of Indigenous Australian children: A systematic review

• Published in: The Australian journal of rural health 2024-08, Vol.32 (4), p.672-683
• Main Authors: Fatima, Khadija, Varela, Sharon, Fatima, Yaqoot, Lindsay, Daniel, Gray, Malama, Cairns, Alice
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Adolescent; Australia; Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples; Child; Child, Preschool; Children; Cognition; Educational Status; Electronic publishing; Extraction; Female; Humans; Indigenous Australian; Indigenous peoples; Integrative approach; Literature reviews; Male; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander - statistics & numerical data; Numeracy; Quality assessment; Quality control; Reviews; Segmentation; Sleep; sleep fragmentation; systematic; Systematic review
• ISSN: 1038-5282; 1440-1584; 1440-1584
• DOI: 10.1111/ajr.13156

Introduction The association between quality sleep and improved cognition is well reported in literature. However, very few studies have been undertaken to evaluate the impact of poor sleep on educational outcomes in Indigenous Australian children. Objectives The objective of this review was to explore the association between sleep and educational outcomes of Indigenous children. Methods For this systematic review, a literature search covering research articles in academic databases and grey literature sources was conducted to retrieve studies published until March 2022. Eight online e‐databases (PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL, SCOPUS, HealthinfoNet, PsycINFO, Cochrane and Google Scholar) were searched for data extraction and two appraisal tools (NIH and CREATE) were used for quality assessment. Studies that explored any aspect of sleep health in relation to educational/academic outcomes in school going Indigenous Australian children aged 5–18 were included in this study. All review articles and studies that focused on physical/ mental disabilities or parent perceptions of sleep and educational outcomes were excluded. A convergent integrated approach was used to collate and synthesize information. Results Only three studies (two cross‐sectional and one longitudinal) met the eligibility criteria out of 574 articles. The sample size ranged from 21–50 of 6 to 13 year old children. A strong relationship was indicated between sleep quantity and educational outcomes, in two of the three studies. One study related the sleep fragmentation/shorter sleep schedules of short sleep class and early risers with poorer reading (B = −30.81 to −37.28, p = 0.006 to 0.023), grammar (B = −39.79 to −47.89, p = 0.012–0.013) and numeracy (B = −37.93 to −50.15, p = 0.003 to 0.022) skills compared with long sleep and normative sleep class whereas another reported no significant relation between sleep and educational outcomes. Conclusion The review highlights the need for more research to provide evidence of potentially modifiable factors such as sleep and the impact these may have on academic performance.