Poor sleep health is an increasingly concerning public healthcare crisis, especially when coupled with a dwindling number of health professionals qualified to combat it. However, there is a growing body of scientific literature on the use of digital technologies in supporting and sustaining individuals' healthy sleep habits. Social robots are a relatively recent technology that has been used to facilitate health care interventions and may have potential in improving sleep health outcomes, as well. Social robots' unique characteristics -- such as anthropomorphic physical embodiment or effective communication methods -- help to engage users and motivate them to comply with specific interventions, thus improving the interventions' outcomes. This scoping review aims to evaluate current scientific evidence for employing social robots in sleep health interventions, identify critical research gaps, and suggest future directions for developing and using social robots to improve people's sleep health. Our analysis of the reviewed studies found them limited due to a singular focus on the older adult population, use of small sample sizes, limited intervention durations, and other compounding factors. Nevertheless, the reviewed studies reported several positive outcomes, highlighting the potential social robots hold in this field. Although our review found limited clinical evidence for the efficacy of social robots as purveyors of sleep health interventions, it did elucidate the potential for a successful future in this domain if current limitations are addressed and more research is conducted.

翻译：不良睡眠健康日益成为令人担忧的公共卫生危机，尤其是在合格健康专业人员数量减少的背景下。然而，关于利用数字技术支持并维持个体健康睡眠习惯的科学文献正不断增多。社交机器人作为相对新兴的技术，已被用于促进医疗健康干预，并可能在改善睡眠健康结局方面具有潜力。社交机器人的独特特征——例如拟人化实体形态或有效沟通方式——有助于吸引用户参与并促使其遵循特定干预措施，从而提升干预效果。本项范围综述旨在评估当前将社交机器人应用于睡眠健康干预的科学证据，识别关键研究空白，并为开发和使用社交机器人改善人群睡眠健康提出未来方向。我们分析发现，纳入研究因仅聚焦老年人群、样本量较小、干预持续时间有限及其他复合因素而存在局限性。尽管如此，这些研究报告了若干积极结果，突显了社交机器人在该领域的潜力。虽然本次综述发现支持社交机器人作为睡眠健康干预载体的临床证据有限，但若当前局限性得以解决并开展更多研究，该领域仍有望取得未来成功。