The translational neuroscience of sleep: A contextual framework

Abstract

Sleep is entwined across many physiologic processes in the brain and periphery, thereby exerting tremendous influence on our well-being. Yet sleep exists in a social-environmental context. Contextualizing sleep health with respect to its determinants—from individual- to societal-level factors—would enable neuroscientists to more effectively translate sleep health into clinical practice. Key challenges and opportunities pertain to (i) recognizing and exploring sleep’s functional roles, (ii) clarifying causal mechanisms in relation to key outcomes, (iii) developing richer model systems, (iv) linking models to known contextual factors, and (v) leveraging advances in multisensory technology. Meeting these challenges and opportunities would help transcend disciplinary boundaries such that social-environmental considerations related to sleep would become an ever-greater presence in the clinic.

Fig. 1.. Social-ecological model of sleep health.

The right side of the image, which depicts a sleeping person, reinforces the importance of situational context in sleep physiology (94). The external environment is shown as a dawn-to-dusk transition, reinforcing the importance of day-night circadian context in sleep physiology (6). Health outcomes associated with sleep—cardiovascular health (23), metabolic health (31), immune health (38), mental health (39), behavioral health (24), and cognitive health (50)—are listed. On the left side of the image, the levels of the social-ecological model are depicted. Individual-level factors that influence sleep include age (58), genetics (105), sex and gender (69), beliefs (94), feelings and attitudes (94), race and ethnicity (78), and behaviors (94). These are embedded within social-level factors, which include neighborhood (88), work and occupation (84), family and home (101), culture (80), social networks (90), socioeconomics (76), and safety and security (89). These factors are further embedded within those at the societal level, such as such as technology (95), globalization (94), racism and discrimination (93), public policy (91), geography (92), the physical environment (94), and “24/7” society (83).