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This chapter discusses the myriad of factors that influence developmental changes in sleep timing and quantity for ten to fifteen-year-old, early adolescents. It begins by outlining how sleep duration, patterns, and circadian timing change over the course of early adolescence. Second, it presents data indicating that early adolescents today have insufficient and erratic sleep–wake patterns. Third, it discusses the collection of factors present in adolescents' microenvironment that challenge young adolescents' sleep, including school start times, television and computer use, and caffeine consumption. Finally, the chapter proposes some of the significant consequences, such as academic difficulties and struggles with depressed mood, that arise when sleep is compromised over the early adolescent years and offer recommendations for improvements.

This chapter is a primer on sleep epidemiology—the methods of assessment on how sleep is measured (e.g., self-report [such as the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale] vs. with use of objective tools such as actigraphy); validity of sleep measurements; the different dimensions of sleep health and disorders that are of interest (e.g., sleep duration, sleep quality, sleep fragmentation, insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, social jetlag, snoring, narcolepsy, etc.); general sleep biology and physiology; and why sleep matters (i.e., the epidemiologic consequences of poor sleep health, e.g., connection to other health behaviors and health outcomes such as drug use; sexual risk behaviors; depression; dietary behaviors such as sugar-sweetened beverage consumption; cardiometabolic diseases like obesity, diabetes, and hypertension; and cancer outcomes such as breast cancer).

Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops inside a woman. This chapter focuses on sleep quality and emergence of sleep disorders in pregnancy, which has implications for both the fetus as well as the mother. An overview of empirical evidence of the association between disturbed sleep in pregnancy and pregnancy-related outcomes is provided along with a ion of The chapter also reviews common sleep disturbances in pregnancy, such as sleep-disordered breathing, insufficient sleep, poor sleep quality, and restless legs syndrome, and synthesizes current knowledge of the impact of poor sleep on pregnancy outcomes, with a particular emphasis on fetal well-being. Evidence is also presented on the potential for maternal sleep to influence fetal origins of chronic disease.

The chapter “Recovery from work and employee sleep” focuses on specific employee experiences and activities during nonwork time that may impact the quality and quantity of employee sleep. First, it introduces several theoretical frameworks that can help understand the possible relationships between nonwork experiences and sleep. It then describes a variety of experiences and activities that are common during nonwork time. Next, the chapter reviews past research differentiating between time-based, thought-based, and arousal-based processes. Findings regarding time-based processes include technology use, personal care, caregiving, and leisure activities. Research related to thought-based processes refers to work-related as well as nonwork-related thoughts, worry/rumination, and mental rest and relaxation. Finally, research around arousal-based processes includes technology use, social interaction, and exercise. The chapter ends with suggested implications for research and practice considering all three processes.

This chapter focuses on how socioeconomic status (SES) can influence sleep health. The chapter overviews traditional SES factors, which include education, income, and employment. Beyond this, the chapter discusses other (less studied) SES factors such as financial hardship and subjective social status among various populations. Socioeconomic sleep disparities in the context of racial/ethnic sleep disparities are considered, and a social ecological model of sleep is discussed, which includes (a) individual-level socioeconomic drivers, which are embedded within (b) social-level socioeconomic drivers, which themselves are embedded within (c) societal-level socioeconomic drivers. The chapter concludes with thoughts for future directions in research.

This chapter highlights sleep among immigrant populations across geographies. Given that the focus of much sleep research on immigrant populations focuses on U.S. populations, that is particularly highlighted. A focus of this chapter is on the measurement of immigration and acculturation and links between sleep and stressors common in immigrant populations. Acculturation is defined and related to immigrant health, as is acculturative stress. Studies of acculturation and sleep explored include studies of adult Hispanic/Latino immigrants, adult Asian immigrants, adult immigrants from multiple origins, adolescents, adolescent Hispanic/Latino immigrants, and adolescent immigrants from multiple origins. Studies of acculturative stress and sleep are also discussed. The chapter finishes with limitations and future directions.

The chapter provides an overview of sleep epidemiology from a social perspective, including the ways social epidemiology can contribute to an improved understand of sleep health across populations. Beyond the topics discussed rigorously in the ensuing chapters (e.g., sleep in pregnancy, sleep among sexual and gender minorities, discrimination, stress and sleep, and neighborhoods and sleep), this chapter briefly discusses other emerging areas of sleep epidemiology such as gender and sleep, and social networks and sleep. It also describes the motivation and rationale for this book and guides the reader through the structure of the rest of the book.