Content analysis of factors related to sleep health among American Indian peoples

Chronic sleep problems are commonly reported in American Indian (AI) peoples, however there is a lack of qualitative research examining the behavioral, psychological, sociocultural, and economic factors surrounding sleep health among AI peoples. This study aims to remedy that oversight by providing qualitative data on AI peoples sleep health.

To explore the perceived barriers to and facilitators of healthy sleep in AI peoples and identify protective cultural factors associated with sleep for AI peoples.

Fifty-nine American Indians aged 30-79 located across 3 geographic sites: Arizona, South Dakota, and Oklahoma.

Focus groups were collected in November 2019 and individual interviews were conducted between May and November 2020. Conventional content analysis was used to examine the recurring and overlapping themes related to perceptions of barriers to and facilitators of healthy sleep.

The results yielded 11 barriers to healthy sleep and 12 facilitators of healthy sleep. Facilitators included protective cultural factors such as good dreams, cultural bedtime routine, praying, traditional knowledge, ceremonies and practices, and traditional remedies.

The findings suggest future sleep health interventions among AI peoples should focus on promoting the cultural factors that were identified as protective factors and improving the sleep environment. Culturally tailoring sleep health interventions is an important step forward in decolonizing research methodologies.