Background: A bi-directional relationship between poor sleep and burnout has been illustrated in existing literature, with nurses being highly susceptible to experiencing both, given the nature of their work. This systematic review sets out to identify and assess the literature to explore the outcomes of burnout interventions for nurses that include sleep hygiene practices. The purpose of this review is to generate insight into how sleep hygiene is contextualised and which types of interventions are more effective at supporting the well-being of nurses.

Methods/design: Systematic searches of English language peer-reviewed journals were conducted in four databases; MEDLINE, CINAHL Complete, Scopus, and PsycINFO using keywords related to burnout, interventions, and nurses. Throughout June and July 2022, the database searches were carried out. 1,239 studies were identified, with publication dates ranging from 2015-2022.

Results: 12 studies met the inclusion criteria, and thus, were included in this review. Using key headings, the relevant data from each study was placed into tables. Half of the studies found significant improvements on at least one dimension of burnout. Sleep hygiene practices that were incorporated into the interventions included mindfulness, yoga, meditation practices, progressive muscle relaxation, and the inhalation of essential oils. Combining multiple sleep hygiene practices into an intervention seems to be helpful in reducing burnout amongst nurses.

Discussion: Individual interventions such as gong meditation, inhaling patchouli oil, and yoga require further research to support their effectiveness in alleviating burnout in nurses. There is also limited evidence to establish conclusions around which of these interventions are more effective than others due to several limitations that have been identified in this review, including the difficulty in making comparisons between the interventions due to the heterogeneity of burnout measurement tools used and the lack of detailed descriptions about the administration of particular interventions. In addition, majority of the studies included in this review were pilot studies, so this causes further difficulty to make conclusions because the effectiveness of these interventions cannot be based on pilot data alone. Thus, further research and replication is needed in this area.