INTERNALIZED SLEEP CULTURE: A NOVEL CONSTRUCT, OR AN EXPANSION OF SLEEP ATTITUDES? CONSTRUCT CONCEPTUALIZATION, SCALE DEVELOPMENT, AND INITIAL VALIDATION

Sleep health is an important aspect of an individual’s overall health; however, it is often overlooked. Despite the promotion of healthy sleep practices, many individuals have competing demands that interfere with sleep (e.g., work, socializing, school), contributing to poor sleep outcomes. This, in part, seems to be a result of having certain values about sleep. What is less understood, however, are how these values become embedded within an individual’s system of beliefs, and, if they are related to sleeping behaviors. This dissertation first crafted a theory based on the pre-existing literature related to internalization to create the construct conceptualization for internalized sleep culture. Internalized sleep culture was intended to help explain the process of adopting ideas related to sleep into one’s own belief system, ideas which are thought to be transmitted through cultural memes, messages, and social channels, and how this may predict subsequent behaviors related to sleep. Next, a measurement scale was developed to assess the degree to which individuals have internalized sleep culture, and the initial validation process was started. Two separate studies utilizing independent samples (N = 669 adults), as well as data from three subject matter experts were used to help develop a 12-item scale consisting of one higher order factor (global internalized sleep culture), and two lower order factors (sleep as a commodity versus a biological/psychological need, and sleep as a mechanism for bonding). Though the scale passed initial validation checks and was found to demonstrate convergent and discriminant validity through correlations with sleep attitudes, sleep hygiene, sleep outcomes (duration, quality, latency), and social desirability, further analyses demonstrated that internalized sleep culture as it was conceptualized and measured was not empirically distinct enough than the pre-existing construct of sleep attitudes. Implications of these findings and future directions related to internalized sleep culture and sleep attitudes are discussed.