A study in the August issue of the journal SLEEP clearly establishes a partial genetic basis underlying racial differences in slow-wave sleep, suggesting that it may be possible to develop sleep-related therapies that target specific genetic variants. Results show that greater African genetic ancestry was associated with lower amounts of slow-wave sleep in African-American adults, with African ancestry explaining 11 percent of the variation in slow-wave sleep after adjustment for potential confounders.

Read the study in SLEEP: African Genetic Ancestry is Associated with Sleep Depth in Older African Americans

Read the press release: Study finds that genetic ancestry partially explains one racial sleep difference