Sleep, Psychopathology and Cultural Diversity

Research on ethnic/racial disparities in sleep in the United States finds minorities to have shorter self-reported and actigraphy-recorded sleep duration and poorer sleep quality. Disparities in mental health mirror disparities in sleep with ethnic/racial minorities reporting higher prevalence and more severe struggles. This review focuses on recent research in sleep and mental health disparities and considers ethnic/racial discrimination as an important third variable that may link these two domains of disparities research. For example, research has found discrimination to mediate ethnic/racial disparities in sleep; at the same time, sleep has been observed to mediate the link between discrimination and mental health. The review concludes with the importance of considering ethnicity/race and accompanying sociodemographic, environmental, and behavioral influences on sleep and mental health research.