There tends to be a greater emphasis on the correlates and impact of sleep duration; however, there are other components of sleep health that are just as impactful. However, there are various definitions for the different components of sleep health which makes it challenging to measure the concept. Therefore, I published a concept analysis focused on defining sleep quality in school-aged children. In this work, I gave a definition, attributes, antecedents, consequences, and empirical referents for sleep quality in school-aged children. It is important to measure sleep health in the pediatric population because evidence suggests that the impact of sleep during childhood not only affects aspects of their childhood but tracks to adulthood and increases the risk for chronic disease.

There is limited research exploring the correlates of sleep health in marginalized youth, especially those who are non-Hispanic Black, who tend to have a higher prevalence of sleep health disparities. I have authored several conference abstracts exploring the correlates of sleep health in non-Hispanic Black youth with two manuscripts in the pipeline for publication. I emphasized exploring how other variables of sleep health, besides sleep duration, can be associated with pediatric health in this population. My findings supported some relationships between sleep duration and sleep efficiency with cardiovascular risk factors, such as abdominal adiposity, elevated body mass index, elevated blood pressure, and household chaos in non-Hispanic Black youth; however, they were smaller sample sizes. These findings support differences in sleep health in marginalized youth and future research should explore these questions in larger samples. Also, there is a need for studies that recognize that race is a proxy for social constructs and explore what the results are representing.

The presence of cardiovascular disease risk factors in childhood can trace into adulthood, increasing the risk for heart disease, the leading cause of death in the world. I have completed several abstracts and my dissertation on the relationships between sleep health and cardiovascular risk factors, specifically blood pressure, abdominal adiposity, and overall adiposity. The findings from my work support that sleep duration and sleep efficiency have some relationships with abdominal adiposity, blood pressure, and overall adiposity. However, these relationships may differ due to sex assigned at birth, race, and ethnicity.