JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Poor or insufficient sleep is associated with numerous adverse, potentially serious physical and mental health outcomes. Equally concerning are the substantial racial, gender, and socioeconomic disparities, with minorities and those experiencing poverty disproportionately affected by poor sleep quality and sleep disorders. Both theory and research suggest sleep health is negatively impacted by concentrated poverty at the neighborhood level, due to deterioration of the built and social environments, thereby creating conditions that disrupt sleep.

Objective:

This research considers an understudied factor related to these conditions and sleep health: policing and police surveillance. Specifically, the study is comparing four neighborhoods within New York City, at different levels of residential segregation.

Methods:

The study design consists of a street-intercept survey with 40 residents in each neighborhood and a 1-week diary phase with a subsample of residents. Neighborhood conditions are also assessed in each of the four neighborhoods using a neighborhood audit tool.

Results:

Data collection launched in September 2024. As of August 2025, we have enrolled more than 100 participants in the baseline survey.

Conclusions:

This information will help establish the extent to which surveillance and policing differentially impact the lives of New Yorkers, as a function of where they live. Specifically, the results should be relevant and important to understanding the impact of novel policing strategies on (under)privileged neighborhoods. This exploratory research will be useful for identifying populations and residential settings that may be most at risk for poor sleep health.