The great awakening: A 15-year bibliometric analysis of the global surge in sleep research.

Abstract

To conduct a longitudinal bibliometric analysis of sleep-related research output across 6 major health disciplines and to identify the specific sleep variables most explored within these fields. Using the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), the top 10 high-impact journals from 6 categories were evaluated: Clinical Psychology, Nutrition & Dietetics, Pediatrics, Dentistry, Geriatrics & Gerontology, and Sports Sciences. Publication trends for the term "sleep" were analyzed in Web of Science Core Collection (WoS) database across 3 5-year timeframes: 2010-2014 (T1), 2015-2019 (T2), and 2020-2024 (T3). Total publication volume of each journal, relative percentage growth in term "sleep", and prevalence of specific sleep-related descriptors (e.g., insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea - OSA, sleep quality) were quantified. Sleep-related research accounted for 0.4% to 2.2% of the total scientific output across the analyzed categories. While total scientific publication volume increased across all fields over the 15-year period, the growth of sleep-related research outpaced general journal expansion by more than 1.5-fold in 4 of the 6 categories. The surge between T2 and T3 was most pronounced in Sport Sciences (140.6%) and Geriatrics (49.4%). Overall, the total relative increase from T1 to T3 was most substantial in Sport Sciences (305.3%) and Clinical Psychology (95.5%), followed by Dentistry (60.0%) and Geriatrics (51.2%). Insomnia, OSA and Sleep Quality were the most frequent descriptors across disciplines. Our findings reveal that diverse scientific disciplines are increasingly incorporating sleep as a key research variable, as evidenced by the significant growth in sleep-related publications within their specialized journals. This trend underscores a growing recognition of sleep's fundamental role in physiological mechanisms and its crucial influence on health. The broader dissemination of sleep science across these distinct fields enables researchers to develop specialized interventions aimed at reducing pathologies and enhancing quality of life through domain-specific practices. not applicable for this type of study.