Sleep-promoting programs may improve developmental outcomes and disrupt the effects of racism, researchers say.

Summary: Research by Fordham University and UIUC suggests that sleep disturbances in adolescents and young adults, exacerbated by racial and ethnic discrimination, impede development and overall health. Interventions like sleep hygiene programs and cognitive therapy are proposed to counteract these effects. The study emphasizes that better sleep may be particularly beneficial for those experiencing racism, impacting emotion regulation and learning, and calls for policies prioritizing sleep health to mitigate discrimination’s detrimental effects on mental, physical, and academic outcomes.

Key Takeaways:

Research conducted by Fordham University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign indicates that racial and ethnic discrimination contributes to sleep disturbances in adolescents and young adults, which negatively impacts their development.
The study advocates for the implementation of sleep-promoting programs, such as school-based sleep hygiene programs, smartphone applications, and cognitive behavioral therapy, to improve sleep quality and duration, which are low-cost yet effective.
Improved sleep is highlighted as a crucial factor for emotional regulation, learning, and memory consolidation, which are essential for healthy development in youths, especially those affected by racism.

New research shows that racial and ethnic discrimination negatively affects sleep and development in adolescents and young adults and that improving sleep may boost health for all youth, especially for those affected by racism.

The article, by researchers at Fordham University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, appears in Child Development Perspectives.

The Stress of Discrimination on Sleep

“Discrimination based on ethnicity or race is a form of stress, and stress has been implicated in sleep disturbances,” says Tiffany Yip, PhD, professor of psychology at Fordham University and the article’s lead author, in a release. “Rather than asking young people to ‘sleep off’ racism, we advocate for creating sleep-promoting programs that have direct benefits for developmental outcomes as well as indirect benefits by disrupting the negative effects of racism.”

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Parents, teachers, scholars, and educational institutions agree nearly universally that sleep and sleep behaviors are important for the healthy development of young people. Sufficient and good-quality sleep is critical for overall adjustment, developmental milestones, and daily functioning for humans throughout life. Adolescence (ages 12-17) and young adulthood (ages 18-25), which feature significant physical and social changes, are critical periods for sleep health. These are also periods when discrimination is more pronounced.

Focusing on Ethnic and Racial Biases

Although discrimination can be based on many individual and intersecting biases (eg, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, education), the authors chose to focus on discrimination rooted in ethnicity and race because of the well-founded documentation of disparities in sleep by race. In their article, they integrate research linking ethnic and racial discrimination to sleep across a variety of methods and developmental time spans.

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Characterizing the ways in which discrimination stress is associated with sleep through direct effects, explanatory pathways, or stress amplification matters because identifying the exact nature of these associations can inform policies and practices related to sleep-focused interventions, the authors say.

Sleep: A Developmental Resource

In addition to being a biological need, science suggests that sleep is also a promotive developmental resource. For example, sufficient sleep duration and good quality sleep are associated with emotion regulation, learning, and memory consolidation, all important aspects of child adjustment. Moreover, sleep is also a modifiable health behavior with documented health benefits so improving sleep can disrupt temporal associations between racism and negative effects on development.

The authors highlight various interventions to improve sleep, including school-based sleep hygiene programs, smartphone applications, and cognitive behavioral therapy. Studies show that sleep interventions can improve important components of sleep, such as total sleep duration, sleep quality, and sleep efficiency. Many of these approaches are low in cost.

“Investigations of racism and youth development must consider sleep health,” says Jinjin Yan, a postdoctoral research fellow in psychology at Fordham University, who co-authored the article, in a release. “A focus on sleep health also holds promise for mitigating the negative developmental effects of ethnic and racial discrimination on mental health, physical health, and academic outcomes.”