Opposite educational gradients in sleep duration between Black and White adults, 2004-2018

To investigate the heterogeneous effects of education on sleep duration for Black and White adults and how the education effects changed between 2004 and 2018.

A total of 251,994 adult participants in the 2004 to 2018 National Health Interview Survey were included in pooled cross-sectional data analyses. Separately for Black and White men and women, we calculated prevalence ratio and average marginal probability of short sleep (<7 hours) for each education level over the study period based on weighted logistic regression models.

Opposite educational gradients in short sleep were observed between Black and White adults. Greater educational attainment was associated with lower likelihood of short sleep among White adults but higher likelihood of short sleep among Black adults. Such heterogeneous educational gradients were robust after accounting for a set of socioeconomic, family, and health factors and persisted between 2004 and 2018.

The health implications of education are not uniform in the US population, and heterogeneous education effects on sleep duration persisted over the past decade. More scholarly attention is needed to identify challenges and barriers that may be unique for race, sex, and education subpopulations to maintain healthy sleep.