With President Donald Trump’s attack on diversity, equity and inclusion, attempts to erase African American history and targeting cities with large Black populations such as Washington, D.C., and Chicago, rest itself has become a form of resistance.
For Black Americans and other marginalized groups bearing the brunt of Trump’s harmful policies, activists, politicians and health experts alike emphasize the importance of sleep. As federal protection is stripped away and economic inequality deepens, the lack of restorative rest threatens not just health, but survival.
“Rest is NOT a trend. Liberation from the toxic systems that view our bodies as a machine for profit is also not a trend. This is ANCIENT work,” the Nap Ministry — founded by “Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto” author Tricia Hersey — wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter during the first Trump administration in December 2020. “Our Rest is Resistance framework is deeply rooted in ancestral, spiritual and radical political thought.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson has warned that Trump’s actions — removing Black Lives Matter Plaza, rolling back diversity initiatives, cutting funding to HBCUs and attempting to erase Black figures from national websites — amount to an assault on Black voices and history.
At the same time, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has documented how Trump’s economic agenda delivers what it calls a “triple threat” to Black households: slashing food assistance, cutting Medicaid coverage and imposing tariffs that undermine Black-owned businesses. These economic attacks leave families under constant stress, compounding the daily exhaustion of living under targeted policies.
That stress translates directly into sleep. A growing body of research shows how insufficient rest harms physical and mental health.
A review in Nature Reviews Endocrinology found that inadequate sleep and circadian misalignment are not just inconveniences but powerful drivers of obesity and metabolic disease, disrupting appetite hormones and increasing the likelihood of poor food choices.
A separate systematic review in Sleep Medicine Reviews demonstrated that sleep quality is directly linked to self-control, with insufficient sleep reducing the ability to manage impulses and make healthy decisions.
The dangers go further. Research published in Metabolism: Clinical and Experimental revealed that sleep restriction increases hunger and insulin resistance, heightening the risk of type 2 diabetes. Another perspective confirmed that chronic sleep loss is linked to obesity, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, noting that while short-term studies show increased hunger and weight gain, the long-term risks are even more profound.
Neuroimaging studies in the Journal of Neuroscience found that even a single night of sleep deprivation upregulates the brain’s reward circuitry, making people more likely to overvalue high-calorie foods. And according to the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, insufficient sleep is now considered a key driver of the global epidemics of obesity and diabetes, with sleep deprivation inducing weight gain and glucose dysfunction.
For Black Americans, the overlap between political oppression and health vulnerability is especially stark. Trump’s policy agenda forces millions to choose between paying for food, rent, or healthcare. The CBPP notes that more than 11 million Black people lived in households receiving food assistance in 2023, and 13 million relied on Medicaid or CHIP for health coverage — lifelines now under direct attack. The loss of such programs not only drives economic instability but also fuels the stress and insomnia that worsen chronic health outcomes.
“Black Americans have worked hard and sacrificed for generations. One man can’t silence our voice or erase our legacy,” said Thompson, who represents Mississippi.
Yet without adequate sleep — one of the most basic pillars of health — Trump’s policies are eroding the foundation of well-being for millions.
Amid challenges, The Nap Ministry is emphasizing the importance of rest.
“I don’t want a seat at the table. The table is full of oppressors,” the organization wrote as an Instagram caption, taking the text directly from Hersey’s “Rest is Resistance.” “I want a blanket and a pillow down by the ocean. I want to rest.”