Family Road Travel

Evidence map

Child sleep travel: what the evidence base looks like

14 publications, 1 of them trials and 8 syntheses. This page describes the shape of that literature rather than summarising its conclusions.

Updated 4 min read 14 citations

Service area on the M6 with parking bays and a filling station beyond
malcolm rayment · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What the evidence on child sleep travel is made of Of 14 publications on this topic, the breakdown by study type: 8 meta-analysis, 1 randomised trial, 4 review, 1 other. 8141meta-analysis (8)randomised trial (1)review (4)other (1)
14 publications, by study type. Volume is not strength — the same count can be a settled question or a pile of commentary, and which one it is depends almost entirely on this breakdown. Harvested from PubMed and Crossref; publication type as recorded by the source.

What this literature is made of

The synthesis is ahead of the primary literature here — reviews and meta-analyses drawing on a modest number of underlying studies. Treat confident conclusions with the caution the sample size deserves.

The distinction that matters most is between synthesis and primary research. A meta-analysis pools trials and is the closest thing to a settled answer a field produces. A narrative review is one group's reading of the same material and can be selective without being dishonest. Counting them together, which most citation counts do, obscures exactly the thing you want to know.

When the child sleep travel literature was published Publication years for the 14 papers on this topic, grouped into bands from before 2015 through to 2023 onwards. 2023 onwards12 papers2020-20222 papers
Still active. The most recent paper here is from 2025, so this is a field where an answer written today may not hold for long. Publication years as recorded by PubMed and Crossref.

How this page is built

Everything above is computed from the citations this site harvested from PubMed and Crossref, not written by hand. When the weekly harvest finds a new paper on this topic, these counts change and the characterisation changes with them. That is the point: a hand-written claim about how strong an evidence base is starts decaying the day it is written.

Publication type is taken as the source records it. That is imperfect — journals label inconsistently, and a paper indexed as a "review" may be a systematic one — so treat the bands as approximate. They are accurate enough to distinguish a trial literature from a commentary literature, which is the distinction that matters.

Passenger cars parked in tight lanes on a ferry's lower vehicle deck
Ulflarsen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The strongest work on this topic

Ordered by study design first, then recency. The full set is listed in the references below.

  1. Benefits and harms of ADHD interventions: umbrella review and platform for shared decision making — Gosling CJ, Garcia-Argibay M, De Prisco M et al., 2025, systematic review
  2. Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses — Lane MM, Gamage E, Du S et al., 2024, systematic review
  3. Revised ISHAM-ABPA working group clinical practice guidelines for diagnosing, classifying and treating allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis/mycoses — Agarwal R, Sehgal IS, Muthu V et al., 2024, clinical guideline
  4. Balancing risks and benefits of cannabis use: umbrella review of meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials and observational studies — Solmi M, De Toffol M, Kim JY et al., 2023, systematic review
  5. The importance of sleep regularity: a consensus statement of the National Sleep Foundation sleep timing and variability panel — Sletten TL, Weaver MD, Foster RG et al., 2023, systematic review
  6. Recommendations from the 2023 International Evidence-based Guideline for the Assessment and Management of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome — Teede HJ, Tay CT, Laven J et al., 2023, clinical guideline
  7. Neuropsychiatric events associated with montelukast in patients with asthma: a systematic review — Lo CWH, Pathadka S, Qin SX et al., 2023, systematic review
  8. Medicinal cannabis for psychiatric disorders: a clinically-focused systematic review — Sarris J, Sinclair J, Karamacoska D et al., 2020, systematic review
  9. Nintedanib in children and adolescents with fibrosing interstitial lung diseases — Deterding R, Young LR, DeBoer EM et al., 2023, randomised controlled trial
  10. Australasian Bronchiolitis Guideline: 2025 Update — Borland ML, Loveys K, Babl FE et al., 2025, review
How much research is there on child sleep travel?
14 publications are indexed here, of which 1 are trials and 8 are syntheses.
Does more research mean a stronger conclusion?
No. Composition matters more than volume — five randomised trials support a claim far better than fifty commentaries, and citation counts do not distinguish between them.
How current is this?
The most recent paper indexed here is from 2025. The set is refreshed weekly from PubMed and Crossref.
Why does this page not tell me the answer?
Because summarising a literature into a conclusion requires reading it, and doing that automatically is how confident nonsense gets published. This page tells you how much weight a conclusion could bear; the articles on this site do the interpreting.

References

Every citation below links to the original peer-reviewed record on PubMed or via DOI. Nothing here is a substitute for medical advice.

  1. Benefits and harms of ADHD interventions: umbrella review and platform for shared decision making Gosling CJ, Garcia-Argibay M, De Prisco M, et al. · BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025 · Systematic review DOIPubMed 41297970Full text
  2. Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses Lane MM, Gamage E, Du S, et al. · BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2024 · Systematic review DOIPubMed 38418082Full text
  3. Revised ISHAM-ABPA working group clinical practice guidelines for diagnosing, classifying and treating allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis/mycoses Agarwal R, Sehgal IS, Muthu V, et al. · The European respiratory journal · 2024 · Clinical guideline DOIPubMed 38423624Full text
  4. Recommendations from the 2023 International Evidence-based Guideline for the Assessment and Management of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Teede HJ, Tay CT, Laven J, et al. · Fertility and sterility · 2023 · Clinical guideline DOIPubMed 37589624
  5. The importance of sleep regularity: a consensus statement of the National Sleep Foundation sleep timing and variability panel Sletten TL, Weaver MD, Foster RG, et al. · Sleep health · 2023 · Systematic review DOIPubMed 37684151
  6. Balancing risks and benefits of cannabis use: umbrella review of meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials and observational studies Solmi M, De Toffol M, Kim JY, et al. · BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2023 · Systematic review DOIPubMed 37648266Full text
  7. Neuropsychiatric events associated with montelukast in patients with asthma: a systematic review Lo CWH, Pathadka S, Qin SX, et al. · European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2023 · Systematic review DOIPubMed 37758273Full text
  8. Medicinal cannabis for psychiatric disorders: a clinically-focused systematic review Sarris J, Sinclair J, Karamacoska D, et al. · BMC psychiatry · 2020 · Systematic review DOIPubMed 31948424Full text
  9. Nintedanib in children and adolescents with fibrosing interstitial lung diseases Deterding R, Young LR, DeBoer EM, et al. · The European respiratory journal · 2023 · Randomised controlled trial DOIPubMed 36041751Full text
  10. Australasian Bronchiolitis Guideline: 2025 Update Borland ML, Loveys K, Babl FE, et al. · Journal of paediatrics and child health · 2025 · Review DOIPubMed 40685806Full text
  11. "Heads Up" for Creatine Supplementation and its Potential Applications for Brain Health and Function Candow DG, Forbes SC, Ostojic SM, et al. · Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2023 · Review DOIPubMed 37368234Full text
  12. Sleep and the Young Athlete Coel RA, Pujalte GGA, Applewhite AI, et al. · Sports health · 2023 · Review DOIPubMed 35855519Full text
  13. Sex and gender in asthma Chowdhury NU, Guntur VP, Newcomb DC, et al. · European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2021 · Review DOIPubMed 34789462Full text
  14. Recommendations From the 2023 International Evidence-based Guideline for the Assessment and Management of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Teede HJ, Tay CT, Laven JJE, et al. · The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2023 · Journal article DOIPubMed 37580314Full text