Sexual and gender minority sleep: A narrative review and suggestions for future research

This article reviews a growing body of research that examines sleep among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) populations. An extensive search of the literature was conducted using multiple medical and psychological search engine platforms. In total, this search yielded 31 reports that included sleep data collected from sexual and gender minority participants. Overall, research findings are mixed and include several publications of studies conducted in the same sample. Our review suggests that sleep health among LGBT individuals may be an unmet health need. Critically, sleep disturbances affected LGBT subgroups differently based on sex/gender and diverse sexual orientations (e.g., bisexual women). Although not directly tested, evidence from parallel LGBT health research suggests that minority stress may contribute to these observed sleep disparities and will need to be directly assessed in future studies. In sum, continued investigation of sleep disparities among sexual and gender minority communities is needed, as is the inclusion of sleep health in theoretical models of LGBT health disparities. Given the importance of sleep in overall mental and physical health, addressing sleep health may serve to promote and protect healthy functioning among LGBT individuals.