Eliminating Sleep Health Disparities and Achieving Health Equity: Seven Areas for Action in the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Community

Abbey J. Hughes, Heather Gunn, Catherine Siengsukon, Melanie A. Stearns, Elisabeth James, Tiffany Donley, Michael A. Grandner, S. Justin Thomas, Kathryn Hansen, Natasha J. Williams

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Racial and ethnically minoritized and under-resourced populations do not reap the same benefits of sufficient sleep as their white counterparts resulting in insufficient sleep and sleep health disparities. Research exploring these disparities have documented a plethora of factors including social determinants of health, community violence, and structural issues–all of which are associated with adverse sleep. There are robust evidence base behavioral intervention that can be leveraged to improve sleep health among racial and ethnic groups. However, EBIs are not well leveraged. In 2021, with participation from members of the society of behavioral sleep medicine, we conducted this report to bring together the field of behavioral sleep medicine including researchers, clinicians and trainees to discuss gaps and opportunities at the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic, systemic racism, and sleep health. The goals were anchored around seven recommendations toward reducing disparities in the near-term and longer-term approaches to eliminating disparities. Furthermore, we acknowledge that reducing and eliminating disparities in sleep health requires a multifaceted approach that includes a focus on individual, community, health care and societal levels of influence with participation from diverse partners including federal, state and local.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)633-645
Number of pages13
JournalBehavioral Sleep Medicine
Volume21
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Neurology
  • Neuroscience (miscellaneous)
  • Psychology (miscellaneous)
  • Medicine (miscellaneous)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Eliminating Sleep Health Disparities and Achieving Health Equity: Seven Areas for Action in the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Community'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this