How do psychosocial and cultural factors influence sleep and circadian health disparities?

Abstract

Sleep and circadian health disparities are persistent differences in sleep characteristics and circadian rhythms that have adverse outcomes and disproportionately affect vulnerable, marginalized, disadvantaged, minority, and minoritized populations. Inequalities in sleep duration, efficiency, timing, regularity, alertness, and quality are manifestations of and contributors to social injustice. Populations known to experience sleep and circadian health disparities include adolescents, indigenous people, refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, immigrants, racial and ethnic minorities, sexual and gender minorities, women, pregnant people, older adults, individuals with mental and physical illness or disabilities, some religious groups, the socioeconomically disadvantaged, the homeless, and those living in underserved rural areas (Billings et al 2021; Garbers et al 2023 Huber et al 2022; Moore et al 2023; Nandagiri et al 2023; Richter et al 2020; Roncoroni et al 2022; Schneeberger et al 2019; Yang et al 2023; Zarhin 2023). A nascent literature has begun to identify potential psycho-social-cultural determinants of sleep and circadian health disparities including social categorization, social identity, intersectionality, social power structures, socio-structural constraints, social, political, and economic context, discrimination, prejudice, and cultural sleep values (Billings et al 2021; Grandner et al 2016; Majeno et al 2023; Zarhin 2023). Many other factors are yet to be discovered. Research that informs our understanding of the factors that contribute to sleep and circadian health disparities can lead to tailored approaches for specific populations that are sensitive to sociocultural contexts, thereby improving health throughout the world (Etindele Sosso et al 2021).