Developmental links between ethnic and racial discrimination and sleep

Abstract

A robust literature is developing around how the stress of discrimination is implicated in individual- and group-level sleep disturbances, and how these disturbances contribute to the development of population-level sleep disparities over time. Although discrimination can be based on many individual and intersecting biases, like gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, and education, in this article, we focus on discrimination rooted in ethnicity and race because of the well-founded documentation of disparities in sleep by race. Focusing primarily on adolescence and young adulthood, we integrate research linking ethnic and racial discrimination to sleep across a variety of methods and developmental time spans, ending with reflections on interventions. In so doing, we seek to advance research and encourage conversations that cross-fertilize collaborations between those with interests in discrimination, sleep, and population-level health equity.