Racial Disparities in Sleep Among Diverse Young Adults During the First Semester of College

This study investigated patterns of disparities in sleep during the first semester of college, focusing on several dimensions of sleep and using multiple methods. Ethnically and racially diverse first-year college students (n = 635; Asian = 20%, Black = 12%, Latinx = 20%, multiracial = 23%, White = 25%; female = 73%, male = 25%, non-binary = 2%) completed a baseline survey, 14 daily diaries, and wore wrist actigraphs in their first semester at college. Across all three methodologies, White students had the longest sleep duration, whereas Black students had the shortest. Across surveys and daily diaries, White students reported the most environmental sleep disturbances. Asian students experienced the poorest actigraphy-assessed sleep efficiency and greatest wake minutes after sleep onset, despite reporting similar levels of sleep quality to other groups. These findings document ethnic/racial sleep disparities among diverse college students across a range of sleep dimensions and offer insight into developing focused institution-level interventions to target specific sleep outcomes.