Assessing the Impact of the 2023 Türkiye–Syria Earthquake on Sleep Disturbances among Children and Adolescents

Rahaf Akel Rajjoub (Assistant Professor, Nursing Department, College of Health Sciences, University of Buraimi, Sultanate of Oman.)
Anna Mohieldeen Ahmad (Assistant professor, Nursing Child Health Department, Faculty of Nursing, Latakia University, Syria.)
Emad Ghassan Eshak (Lecturer of Pediatric Nursing, Child Health Department, Faculty of Nursing, Latakia University, Syria)
Abeer Saleem Assaf (Assistant professor, Nursing Community Health Department, Faculty of Nursing, Latakia University, Syria.)
I Gede Juanamasta (Nursing Program, STIKES Wira Medika Bali,Indonesia)
Abdulkareem Iblasi (Assistant Professor, Nursing Department, College of Health Sciences, University of Buraimi, Sultanate of Oman.)
Laila Adnan Assaf (Academic Work Supervisor, Speech and Language Pathology Department, Faculty of Health Science, Damascus University)

Jurnal Keperawatan Soedirman (The Soedirman Journal of Nursing)
Vol 21 No 2 (2026): Jurnal Keperawatan Soedirman (JKS)

Despite growing evidence that disasters adversely affect children's sleep, data on displaced Syrian children following the 6 February 2023 Türkiye–Syria earthquake remain scarce. This study investigated the prevalence and determinants of sleep disturbances among displaced Syrian children and adolescents one month after the earthquake. A cross-sectional study was conducted from March to April 2023 among 150 participants aged 7–17 years residing in five government shelters in Syria. Sleep disturbances were assessed using the Child and Adolescent Sleep Checklist (CASC), and data were analyzed using independent-samples t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation. Clinically significant sleep disturbance (CASC ≥18) was identified in 95.3% of participants. Irregular nocturnal sleep affected nearly all participants, while 44.7% experienced insufficient sleep. Children aged 7–12 years had significantly higher scores for sleep breathing/unstable sleep and parasomnia/sleep movement than adolescents (both p ≤ 0.001). Educational grade was associated with multiple sleep domains, whereas longer nocturnal sleep duration was associated with lower sleep disturbance scores (both p < 0.05). These findings reveal a substantial burden of sleep disturbance among displaced children following a major disaster and support integrating age-specific sleep assessment and targeted interventions into post-disaster pediatric care.