Obstacles to overcome when improving sleep health at a societal level

Sleep is an important domain of health, and sleep health interventions have the potential to improve health in the population. Yet, these interventions face many challenges. This chapter aims to characterize these challenges, cast these challenges into the context of health behavior models that may help facilitate the development of interventions, and provide recommendations for the development of sleep health interventions. The primary challenges identified are lack of time, unhelpful social norms, interference from the physical environment, the presence of health issues, use of substances that interfere with sleep, and the ever-present distractions (technological and otherwise). Using the frameworks provided by the Health Belief Model, Integrated Behavior Model, and Transtheoretical Model, recommendations for elements to include in sleep health interventions are (1) education, (2) assessment, (3) facilitation, (4) control, (5) socialization, and (6) readiness.