Social patterning of sleep

Despite sleep being commonly viewed as a non-social, physiologically determined act, a major theme within all of our work is that how we sleep, when we sleep, where we sleep, and with whom we sleep, are all influenced by social, cultural and historical factors. The investigation of these influences and the ways in which they manifest themselves within the meanings, methods, motives and management of sleep contribute both to our understanding of the sleep/wake cycle and how social factors are implicated in poor or disrupted sleep.