Adolescent sleep development and variability in non-industrial environments: patterning, efficiency and cultural representations (WFG - Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship)

Summary

This resource is an application for Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Wenner-Gren Foundation.

Sleep is crucial for human health and development, including restorative functions, learning, energy conservation and emotional life. The amount of sleep for functional human development remains unclear and likely reflects contextual variation. Using bio-social, anthropological perspectives, my study compares sleep patterns of adolescents living in two non-industrial and one industrial society in Mexico to uncover functional aspects of sleep during the plastic flexible period of adolescence. Studies of contemporary, industrialized societies describe the tendency for adolescents’ sleeping and waking times as later than childhood, with sleep deficits commonly on school nights and with social and cultural demands, including access to electronic, screen-based technological amenities contributing to unhealthy sleep habits. My study examines whether the shift in the sleep-wake cycle of adolescents reported in industrialized populations is replicated in non-industrialized societies, and what bio-socio-cultural factors (working/schooling efforts, exposure to light and screen-based devices, gender and social sleep practices) influence the quality and duration of their sleep. My proposal involves writing four articles addressing adolescent sleep quality, circadian activity patterns, sleep phenomenology and cultural expectations, and methodological issues for adolescent sleep research. These papers will contribute to anthropology by illuminating sleep development and variation, thus revealing the natural history of human sleep.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• WGF - Support for Research Projects   •
• Wenner-Gren Foundation

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Wenner-Gren Foundation

Notes

Rights & Attribution: This resource is an application from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and has been approved by the grantee solely for pedagogical purposes. Please do not cite, circulate, or duplicate any part of these documents without the express written consent of the author.

File Information