Interventions to Reduce Sleep Health Disparities

Council Date: May 23, 2023

Objective

Support non-pharmacological interventions to promote sleep health, reduce sleep health disparities, and examine sleep as a modifiable factor to reduce health disparities for other health outcomes among populations that experience health disparities.

Download the full concept paper

Description of Initiative

This initiative will support the development and testing of multilevel, multidomain interventions to promote sleep health, treat sleep disorders, reduce sleep health disparities, and/or examine sleep as a modifiable health factor to reduce disparities for other health outcomes.

This initiative emphasizes promoting interventions to improve sleep health by addressing one or more behavioral, social, environmental, or structural determinants of disparities in sleep health or deficiencies, rather than on pharmacological interventions that do not address these underlying causes. Interventions should consider the important contextual factors that can influence sleep and sleep health disparities.

Interventions should examine the underlying mechanisms of action of changes in sleep behavior or sleep health, and must focus on one or more NIH-designated populations that experience health disparities in the U.S. and its territories.

Since sleep disparities begin in early life and occur across the lifespan, interventions among populations across the life course are encouraged, as well as those that consider key life transition points known to co-occur with changes in sleep.

Interventions may consider multiple facets of sleep health, including sleep quality, quantity, efficiency, and timing. The expectation is that improving sleep health and treating sleep disorders may improve various health outcomes and reduce health disparities.

Research Priorities: Intervention research topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Improving sleep health awareness, early detection of poor sleep and sleep disorders, and early intervention, in clinical and other settings
• Population-level interventions focused on policies and practices to promote healthy sleep
• Approaches that incorporate environmental and social determinants of health to address sleep health disparities, such as interventions addressing the home or neighborhood built environment
• Prevention of sleep health disparities across the lifespan or at key life course transition points, such as during early childhood, periods of unemployment, pre/peri/postnatal periods, parenthood, etc.
• Adapt and develop evidence-based, culturally appropriate interventions for populations that experience health disparities including specific vulnerable populations, such as shift workers
• Investigate sleep as primary prevention for health outcomes with observed health disparities through community-based research
• Determine whether sleep mediates or modifies intervention effectiveness for health outcomes with observed disparities

Page updated August 23, 2023  |  created August 23, 2023