No sleep, please, we're British [and poor]
People living in deprived areas of the UK are more likely to suffer from poor sleep, with ethnic minorities worse off
EVEN the blanket of sleep is no comforting – if temporary – respite from hardship, it appears; if we think about it, this sorry truth should come as no surprise.
We all need our sleep. It's essential to our well-being; our very ability to function.
But people who live in deprived areas sleep worse than residents in affluent areas, according to a new study. Darker still, there's a racial element at play, too – with ethnicity also linked to poor sleep.
Sleep is one of those basic yet fundamental necessities of existence – biological and psychological – that underpin our physical and mental health and well-being, not to mention our ability to navigate everyday life.
Yet, as is so often the case in our bitterly unequal society, the quality of our slumber – like food, shelter, water, rest, mental stimulation, companionship, a sense of safety – is regarded as something of a privilege of social rank.
It's not necessarily put in such crude terms (though occasionally not far off), but such things are luxuries for which the poor are undeserving.
Fortunately, not everyone shares such sentiments, otherwise (presumably) a team of psychologists from the universities of Nottingham Trent (NTU) and Roehampton wouldn't have taken the time and effort to study the impact of deprivation.
In the process, shedding a little light on the needless detriment it exerts on people's lives.
Still awake?
So, to the study, which was published in the journal Clocks and Sleep earlier this year: it's as much about finding ways to break the cycle of sleeplessness, as it is understanding the bitter relationship between material deprivation and, well, becoming sleep deprived.
Simply put, people living in less affluent areas were found to be more likely to wake in the middle of the night. The study focused particularly on middle-aged and older people, exploring UKBiobank data from around 500,000 people aged 40-69.
“The sample size is sufficiently large to demonstrate that both social deprivation and ethnicity affect sleep quality independently of age, sex, personal wealth, employment, and education,” said lead researcher, professor John Groeger, head of sleep well science at NTU's School of Social Sciences.
Groeger's team of psychologists analysed reports of people's various sleep problems: such as sleeping for too long or too little for their age; waking in the night; waking too early; snoring; daytime sleepiness; and difficulty getting going in the morning.
These were combined into a Problematic Sleep Index, allowing the individual and combined influence of a wide range of characteristics to be quantified.
This was cross-referenced with personal wealth, including household income and property ownership; ethnic group; employment; education; and postcode-based social deprivation information.
What they found is that almost one-third of participants reported sleeping shorter (24.7%) or longer (7.7%) than age-corrected recommended sleep durations. Both of these are associated with increased risk of mortality.
The incidence of shorter or longer sleep increased with social deprivation and varied with ethnicity, the team found.
The findings also showed that waking during the night, likelihood of sleeping during the day, difficulty of getting up in the morning, and snoring are all affected by ethnicity, and the extent of social deprivation where they live.
White people (82.4%), for instance, considered it easier to get up in the morning compared with Black (74.4%), Asian (73.5%) or Mixed ethnicities (74.2%).
People living in deprived areas found it harder to get up in the morning, and were more likely to nap or doze during the daytime, and wake in the middle of the night.
While being employed or retired is associated with better sleep, being unable to work or unemployed is not, and Black people and those living in deprived areas reported the worst sleep overall.
Better off, better sleep
The best sleepers were seen to be male, younger, affluent, educated to degree level, living with others in the home they own and have lived in for some time, with a high income, multiple vehicles, and a long-term job.
According to the study, the Problematic Sleep Index combines all of the sleep issues explored into a single measure. This provides a useful tool, it's claimed, that can be used by community health care teams to identify individuals and families in particular areas where targeted support for specific sleep problems may be needed.
“The implications of these findings have relevance to better health, educational outcomes, and wealth creation and productivity, as poor sleep causes all of these to be worse,” Groeger added. “Socially disadvantaged groups sleep worse, and this may be something we can 'level up'.
“We know we can improve sleep through education and intervention, and this research shows that targeting such interventions and education in particular geographic areas may [provide] the optimal use of scarce resource and expertise.”
Something to sleep on, then; just don't let the bed bugs bite.
MC