Sleep environment is a crucial, modifiable influence on sleep health, yet little is known about its contribution to sleep health in low- and middle-income countries, where unique barriers to optimal sleep environments may exist. Despite its global relevance, sleep research has been predominantly conducted in developed nations, leaving significant gaps in our understanding of sleep patterns in Africa and other developing countries. This study addresses this critical imbalance by examining the association between environmental factors and sleep health in a nationally representative survey of Nigerian adults (n = 1046; Mean age = 33.64, SD = 9.29). We hypothesized that physical comfort, comfortable temperature, quietness, and darkness would be independently associated with better sleep health. Participants completed selected items from the Sleep Practices and Attitudes Questionnaire and the RU-SATED Questionnaire.
Overall sleep health score averaged 6.32 (SD = 2.15). Bivariate correlations showed modest associations between sleep health and physical comfort (r = .079, p = .011) and darkness (r = -.092, p = .003). Despite adequate variability, temperature, quietness, and overall sleep environment score were not significantly correlated with sleep health. Hierarchical regression revealed that demographic factors significantly predicted overall sleep health (R² = .046, p < .001). Adding sleep environment characteristics increased explained variance (R² = .056, p < .001), with darkness as the only significant environmental predictor (β = -.086, p = .005). The final model retained urban residence (β = -.125, p < .001), gender (β = .106, p = .001), age (β = .096, p = .002), and sleep place darkness (β = -.086, p = .005) as significant predictors.
Results indicate that, although sleep health is somewhat low among Nigerian adults, aspects of the sleep environment do not appear to be substantially related to sleep health. Interestingly, greater darkness was the only environmental factor to be associated with worse sleep health, which could reflect other related variables, such as poverty or electricity instability, that influence sleep health. Overall, the aspects of sleep environment that impact sleep health in Western countries may not have the same impact in African countries. Further research should explore diverse predictors of sleep health among non-Western populations.