Place of Birth and Sleep Duration: Analysis of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)

While sleep disturbance has been related to a number of negative health outcomes, few studies have examined the relationship between place of birth and sleep duration among individuals living in the US. Data for 416,152 adult participants in the 2000-2013 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), who provided self-reported hours of sleep and place of birth were examined. Associations were explored between healthy sleep (7-8 h), referenced to unhealthy sleep (<7 or >8 h), and place of birth using multivariate logistic regression analysis. The mean age of the sample was 47.4 ± 0.03 years; 56% were female. Of the respondents, 61.5% reported experiencing healthy sleep, 81.5% reported being born in the US and 18.5% were foreign-born adults. Descriptive statistics revealed that Indian Subcontinent-born respondents (71.7%) were more likely to report healthy sleep compared to US-born respondents (OR = 1.53, 95% CI = 1.37-1.71, p < 0.001), whereas African-born respondents (43.5%) were least likely to report healthy sleep (OR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.70-0.87, p < 0.001). These findings suggest that place of birth should be considered in the assessment of risk factors for unhealthy sleep.