Sleeping under fire: Jewish and Muslim Israelis’ experiences of sleep during wartime

Objectives: Over the past 2 decades, armed conflicts have intensified globally, disrupting everyday life for those in affected areas. While some studies have suggested that civilians' sleep is negatively impacted, little is known about how civilians themselves experience and explain these sleep disruptions. This exploratory study uses the armed conflict in Israel as a case study to advance understanding of the lived dynamics through which conflict affects sleep. Methods: This article draws on a reflexive thematic analysis of focus groups with Muslim and Jewish men and women from Israel's northern and southern regions. Results: Most participants reported a decline in both sleep quality and quantity, attributing this decline to 5 interrelated factors: fear for their own safety and that of family members; sensory and spatiotemporal disruptions, including acoustic triggers and repeated shelter seeking; relational dynamics, particularly children's sleep, which affected parents; spatial dislocation through relocation and displacement; and economic insecurity marked by worry, uncertainty, and material hardship. Conclusions: By showing that sleep is a deeply sociopolitical experience, the study contributes to scholarly understandings of sleep during conflict and, more broadly, to research on the social determinants of sleep. The study underscores the need for further research and for policies and interventions to mitigate the profound impacts of armed conflict on sleep, while recognizing the limits of such efforts under conditions of ongoing armed conflict.