Built environment and sleep health

In this chapter, we describe the main hypothesized pathways by which the built environment affects sleep health. These pathways can be grouped into three broad categories: ambient hazards and physical exposures; psychosocial pathways; health and behavior. These pathways by which the built environment can affect sleep can occur at three different levels: home, neighborhood, and society. Efforts to improve population sleep health through the built environment should incorporate principles of social justice by seeking to improve the extent to which all society members can access comfortable housing, parks, public transit, healthy food stores, and pollution-free sources of energy and transportation.