This article was originally published in July 2017.
Healthy sleep has important benefits for human wellbeing. Life Course Centre research fellow Dr Francisco Perales’s recent research into the effects of local economic conditions, economic vulnerability and sleep has shown that living in poor economic circumstances can result in sleep loss.
In a paper, co-authored with Ms Stefanie Plage, titled ‘Losing ground, losing sleep: Local economic conditions, economic vulnerability, and sleep’ published in the journal Social Science Research, he finds that individuals who live in areas with high unemployment rates or experience individual-level economic vulnerability sleep less than comparable individuals in areas with low unemployment rates, or who do not experience financial hardships.
When economic uncertainty is high, people draw upon local economic conditions to infer the likelihood of deterioration in their own personal economic circumstances. This can be a stressful and emotionally straining process that may result in bedtime worry and rumination.
The research also highlights the importance of considering multiple levels in the analysis of health inequalities, as status and location intersect to produce and reproduce disadvantage systems. This is illustrated by the finding that living in a poor area has a substantially more negative effect on the sleep of economically vulnerable individuals.
The research paper can be found here.