Loneliness and sleep in the American Indian Blackfeet community

Sleep is largely understudied in American Indians (AIs), even though sleep is implicated in the chronic diseases which disproportionately affect AI communities.

To investigate relationships between daily self-reported loneliness and sleep as measured with actigraphy.

In a sample of 98 Blackfeet adults living on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana, we used Ecological Momentary Assessment and actigraphy over a week-long period to investigate relationships between loneliness and sleep. Loneliness was measured daily using the Short Loneliness Scale and actigraphy was used to measure total sleep time, sleep onset latency (SOL), wake after sleep onset (WASO), and sleep efficiency (SE).

Using a series of generalized linear mixed-effects models controlling for demographic characteristics, anxiety and depressive symptoms, and adverse childhood experiences, we found that those who were lonelier had higher WASO and SOL, and lower SE relative to those who were less lonely. Within-subject effects indicate that participants who were lonelier for a given day relative to their own weekly average had higher WASO that night relative to their own weekly average.

Our findings provide initial preliminary evidence suggesting that loneliness may be a psychosocial factor which contributes to poor sleep in AI communities.