# Enhanced Measurement and Modeling of Sleep Electrophysiology to Better Understand Sleep Disparities

> **NIH NIH R21** · BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL · 2020 · $216,813

## Abstract

Project Summary
Health disparities associated with race and ethnicity are a major public health issue in the United
States. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that differences in people's quality and quantity of sleep may
account for part of this problem. Here we wish to study patterns of sleep, using full polysomnography
data in a large and diverse cohort, to better understand what causes some individuals and groups to
differ in their typical sleep, and to link this variation in sleep to relevant health outcomes.
In order to study sleep as a mediator of health disparities associated with race/ethnicity, we propose to
first unpack the “sleep” term into profiles of quantitative traits (Aim 1). Second, we will test for
demographic moderators of the associations between race/ethnicity and sleep traits, which can point to
likely socioeconomic and social/environmental contextual mediators (Aim 2). Finally, we will
demonstrate the relevance of these findings by testing for association with health outcomes – primarily
cardiovascular disease risk and measures of allostatic load – and estimating the extent to which sleep
accounts for racial/ethnic health disparities (Aim 3).
We will apply a targeted array of data-driven analytic methods, from data science, machine learning,
computational neuroscience and causal modeling, to characterize individual differences in patterns of
sleep. A more nuanced understanding of what constitutes “poor sleep” is important because different
aspects of sleep are likely to have qualitatively different links to demographic and biomedical factors,
including age, sex, lifestyle factors, inherited genetic makeup, circadian rhythms, medication effects
and current state of physical and mental health. By disentangling this network of inter-related variables,
we will be better positioned to understand – and ameliorate – the effects of the numerous factors that
can induce racial/ethnic disparities in sleep, and consequently, in health too.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10020195
- **Project number:** 5R21MD012738-02
- **Recipient organization:** BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Shaun M Purcell
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $216,813
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-17 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10020195

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10020195, Enhanced Measurement and Modeling of Sleep Electrophysiology to Better Understand Sleep Disparities (5R21MD012738-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10020195. Licensed CC0.

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