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The Sleep Gap: Advancing Healthy Sleep Among Youth In Rural Communities, Vanessa N. Jones, Justin Bucchio

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Sleep is essential to survival yet remains a public health concern affecting rural youth and adults (Chang et al., 2012; Kakkar, Bohra, Trivedi, Gupta, & Saini, 2016). Besides emotional and social problems, regular short sleep among youth contributes to neurodevelopmental and mental health concerns. Youth that reside in rural communities experience higher rates of short sleep (Daly et al., 2015); therefore, understanding and recognizing specific health risks and protective factors among this population is important to addressing sleep disparity. Future research should explore translating sleep knowledge into practical strategies to help reverse sleep insufficiency among rural youth. This practice note …