Sleep Medicine

This chapter reviews how sleep health disparities can impact sleep medicine clinical practice. Factors that may impede care include immigration status, language barriers, belonging to a racially minoritized group, or identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, plus (LGBTQ+). Sleep health disparities in the context of children, older adults, and military veterans are also discussed. This chapter describes how the development of cross-cultural communication skills, improved patient education techniques, alternative visit models (e.g., telehealth), multidisciplinary care delivery, and community engagement can help mitigate harmful direct and indirect consequence of sleep health disparities. Finally, gaps in current knowledge and future directions for sleep health disparities research are discussed.