Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: Dr. Gangwisch has indicated no financial conflicts of interest. In this issue of SLEEP, Seicean and colleagues1 report on their cross sectional study that explores differences in sleep quality and quantity between Mexican-born U.S. immigrants, U.S.-born Mexican-Americans, and U.S. adults, to explore the question of The Hispanic Paradox. Mexican immigrants have been shown to have lower morbidity and mortality despite many social and economic disadvantages including decreased access to healthcare, lower educational obtainment, and increased exposure to discrimination.2 The authors theorize that this seemingly contradictory finding could be partially explained by Mexican cultural norms that place a higher importance upon getting adequate sleep. Consistent with this idea, they found that Mexican immigrant men were significantly less likely than U.S. born Mexican-Americans and U.S. adults to report short sleep duration, insomnia, and impairment due to insufficient or poor quality sleep. Mexican immigrant women were significantly less likely to have mild/moderate insomnia, to report poor sleep quality to a physician, and to experience sleep related impairment. They also found Mexican immigrants to have a number of other favorable health practices, including being less likely to smoke, use caffeine, use illegal drugs, and have a sedentary lifestyle. Immigrant men continued to have significantly decreased odds of having short habitual sleep durations and suffering from insomnia even after controlling for multiple covariates. To test their hypothesis that Mexican cultural norms were associated with favorable sleep outcomes, Seicean et al.1 explored whether Spanish language preference, used as a proxy measure for cultural change to American norms, acted as a partial mediator in the relationship between immigrant status and sleep quantity and quality. In men, the inclusion of Spanish language preference into their multivariate models resulted in appreciable attenuations in the associations between immigrant status and sleep characteristics. Their results are consistent with Mexican cultural norms being protective against insufficient and poor quality sleep in men. Cultural norms that place a higher importance upon getting adequate sleep could be protective against morbidity and mortality since short sleep duration and poor sleep quality have been shown to increase the risk for many deleterious health outcomes including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and mortality.3 The cross-sectional study by Seicean et al.1 was not able to explore whether longer sleep durations and higher quality sleep act as mediators in the relationship between immigration status and risk for future morbidity and mortality. If improved sleep in Mexican immigrants in comparison to U.S. born Mexican-Americans and U.S. adults is found to be protective against disease in future longitudinal studies, then sleep and the cultural norms surrounding it could help to explain part of the Hispanic paradox. Americans could benefit from adopting Mexican cultural norms that place a higher importance on sleep. Many Americans prefer more waking hours, believing that this will allow them to lead a more full and productive life. But cutting back on sleep time can impair the quality of the life that one leads. Not getting enough sleep has been found to be associated with irritability, impatience, pessimism, and feeling tired and stressed.4 Decreased sleep quantity and quality can also impair attention and arousal, and diminish memory consolidation and insight formation—the building blocks for learning and creativity.5 Budgeting our time to allow adequate time to sleep can pay off in many ways. By choosing to get adequate sleep we can improve how we feel and increase our motivation, energy, cognitive capacity, and creativity to be more productive when we are awake. Decreased irritability and increased patience can improve our social relationships. Many individuals are drawn to immigrate to the U.S. to raise their material standard of living. However, the increased income can come at a considerable cost. Earning additional money can require working longer hours and having both spouses employed, allowing less time for leisure activities, social interactions, rest, and sleep. Dual income families have the added strain of meeting household and childcare demands after work, functions often shouldered to a greater degree by women. Interestingly, in the study of Seicean and colleagues,1 higher incomes were associated with short sleep duration and the inclusion of higher income in the multivariate model appreciably attenuated the protective effect of being a Mexican immigrant on short sleep duration in men. Money is often equated with prestige and social status in the U.S., motivating many to make sacrifices to earn enough to display the material trappings of success. Perhaps we would be better served by reducing our consumption and simplifying our lifestyles, requiring fewer resources and less toil to meet our wants and needs.
Source: SLEEP
DOI: 10.5665/sleep.1142
Author: James E. Gangwisch
Institution: Columbia University
Language: English
Topic: Sleep and related disorders
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2050860640