Disturbed sleep is associated with increased health care utilization and costs, risks to public safety, reduced quality of life, and morbidity and mortality in the general population. This chapter reviews data related to racial and ethnic health disparities in sleep disorders and discusses the implications for nursing. It focuses on American populations for whom there is available data on sleep. Latino, African, and Asian-Americans may be at greater risk to have or to develop sleep disorders, including sleep-disordered breathing, insomnia, and short sleep duration than their Caucasian counterparts. Risk for developing sleep-related comorbidities may be compounded by cultural barriers, language, acculturation, stress, low income, low education, and lack of health insurance. Well-designed studies are needed to adequately and appropriately evaluate the prevalence of sleep disorders and their associations with morbidity, mortality, function, quality of life and to evaluate sleep disorders treatment outcome.