Socioeconomic status in childhood predicts sleep continuity in adult Black and White men

Abstract

Objectives: Low socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood may be associated with sleep in adulthood. We evaluated the relationships between SES in childhood through adolescence and into adulthood and sleep in midlife men.

Design: Prospective assessment of SES in childhood and adulthood.

Setting: Population-based study of 139 Black and 105 White men enrolled since age 7 and evaluated for sleep characteristics at age 32.

Measurements: Actigraphy and diary measures of sleep duration, continuity, and quality for 1 week. Their parents reported their SES (a combination of educational attainment and occupational status) annually when the boys were ages 7 to 16. We estimated SES intercept (age 7) and slope (age 7 to 16) using M-Plus and conducted linear regression analyses using those values to predict adult sleep measures, adjusting for covariates.

Results: Men who had lower SES families at age 7, smaller increases in SES from ages 7 to 16, and lower SES in adulthood had more minutes awake after sleep onset. White men with greater increases in SES from ages 7 to 16 had shorter sleep.

Conclusions: SES in childhood and improvement in SES through adolescence are related to sleep continuity in midlife men. To our knowledge, this is the first report using prospectively measured SES in childhood in relation to adult sleep.

Keywords: Longitudinal; Race; Sleep; Socioeconomic status.