By: Stacy M. Brown, Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
Washington, D.C. — In these punishing times under Donald Trump’s authoritarian rule, even rest has become an act of resistance. For Black Americans and other marginalized groups shouldering the weight of Trump’s harmful agenda, sleep is more than recovery—it is survival. As protections are stripped away and inequality deepens, the inability to secure restorative rest threatens both health and life itself.
Congressman Bennie Thompson has cautioned that Trump’s actions—tearing down Black Lives Matter Plaza, dismantling diversity programs, slashing HBCU funding, and erasing Black figures from government websites—are a direct attack on Black voices and history. Meanwhile, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has tracked what it calls a “triple threat” to Black households: cuts to food assistance, reductions in Medicaid, and tariffs that destabilize Black-owned businesses. The result is constant financial stress that fuels exhaustion and erodes the chance for healthy sleep.
Science is clear. A review in Nature Reviews Endocrinology found that poor sleep and disrupted body clocks drive obesity and metabolic disease by throwing appetite hormones out of balance. A systematic review in Sleep Medicine Reviews linked sleep quality to self-control, showing how exhaustion weakens decision-making. Research in Metabolism: Clinical and Experimental showed that sleep loss increases hunger and insulin resistance, pushing people toward type 2 diabetes. Studies in Obesity confirmed the long-term links between chronic sleep deprivation, obesity, heart disease, and cancer. And neuroimaging research in the Journal of Neuroscience revealed that even one night without rest alters brain activity, making high-calorie foods more tempting. According to the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, lack of sleep is now a driver of global epidemics in obesity and diabetes.
For Black communities, the collision between political oppression and health vulnerability is stark. Trump’s agenda forces families to choose between food, rent, and medical care. The CBPP reports that in 2023, more than 11 million Black people lived in households receiving food assistance, while 13 million relied on Medicaid or CHIP—programs now under direct attack. The loss of such lifelines doesn’t just destabilize finances; it intensifies stress and insomnia, worsening long-term health outcomes.
“Black Americans have worked hard and sacrificed for generations. One man can’t silence our voice or erase our legacy,” Congressman Thompson said. Yet the erosion of sleep, the most basic pillar of health, shows how deeply Trump’s policies cut into the foundation of Black well-being. In today’s America, where authoritarian politics threatens both democracy and daily survival, the struggle for rest has become inseparable from the struggle for justice.
