Sleep gay
Sleeping While Queer: Gay Perspectives on Repose Health + Doze Disorders
June is Celebration Month! Project Nap is proud to highlight LGBTQ+ rest health and insights from LGBTQ+ members of our collective throughout the month of June.
What does LGBTQ+ identity own to do with sleep? More than you might think! Experiences shared by many LGBTQ+ people can affect doze health and nap disorders in challenging and often hidden ways. Research shows that anti-LGBTQ+ stigma and discrimination guide to sleep disparities.
Want to know more? Watch Sleeping While Queer: LGBTQ+ Perspectives on Sleep Health + Sleep Disorders to hear group members share how their identity and sleep are closely intertwined.
Watch Sleeping While Queer
Alphonse Littlejohn (they/he) is probably asleep as you decipher this. Al came to his narcolepsy diagnosis after surviving a car accident in 2017 and has been fighting for his right to exist as a black and indigenous non-binary homosexual person ever since. Laughter and loving relationships are their favorite reasons for waking up every day.
Benny Manning (he/him) is a gay transgender man living with narcolepsy. He loves explorin
Gay youths are more than twice as likely to include sleep trouble, analyze finds
Gay, lesbian and bisexual youths are at far greater risk of nap problems than their straight counterparts, according to a modern study published in the journal LGBT Health.
Researchers analyzed information on more than 8,500 young people ages 10 to 14, a critical time for mental and physical maturation. They found that 35.1% of those who identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual reported trouble falling or staying asleep in the previous two weeks, compared to 13.5% of straight-identifying adolescents.
In addition, 30.8% of questioning youths — those who answered “maybe” to existence gay, lesbian or bisexual — reported problems with getting a full night’s rest.
“Sleep is incredibly important for a teenager’s health,” said lead author Jason M. Nagata, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. “There’s progress spurts and hormonal changes that serve you develop normally.”
Most kids don't acquire quality sleep to begin with, Nagata said, but LGBTQ youths can confront bullying and discrimination at school or conflicts at place that contribute to mental health issues.
Those problems can keep them
A new national study, published in LGBT Health, finds that sapphic, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youth are twice as likely to report trouble falling or staying asleep than their straight peers. Greater depression, stress, and family conflict contribute to the doze problems of LGB youth.
"Young people who identify as lesbian, homosexual, or bisexual may face discrimination and negative attitudes because of their sexual orientation. These experiences can make it harder for them to get a wonderful night's sleep," says lead composer, Jason Nagata, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. "Difficulties getting along with family, feeling sad and hopeless, and entity under a lot of pressure could all make it challenging for lesbian, gay, and attracted to both genders youth to sleep well."
The researchers analyzed data from 8563 youth ages 10-14 years old who are part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, the largest long-term study of head development and child health in the United States. Data were collected from 2018-2020. The youth and their parents answered questions about their sleep habits and youth were asked about their sexual orientation.
Youth who
It’s well-documented that everything from your personality type to your gender to your career affects your ability to get a fine night’s sleep. One area that’s currently being explored in more detail is whether your sexual orientation impacts sleep as skillfully.
Sexual orientation and sleep: a look at the research
A 2017 study published in Preventive Medicine Reports delved into whether sexual orientation has any impact on sleep—something that hadn’t been examined much previously.
“Potential differences regarding doze behavior, a key indicator of long-term health and a growing public health concern, have yet to be studied across dimensions of sexual orientation,” noted Julie Fricke and Maria Sironi, the two research authors.
In their learn of 7,646 women and 6,688 men (14,334 total), Fricke and Sironi looked at three “dimensions” of sexual orientation—sexual attraction, sexual behavior, and sexual identity—and correlated them with difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or simply not getting enough sleep.
Perhaps not surprisingly, they found “considerable variation regarding sleep disturbances both