The area in which one lives such as urban, suburban, or developing could determine the amount of vulnerability sensed by an individual. Cross cultural factors could look at religious obligations, traditions, morals, races, and ethnicities that play a role in the cognitions involved with insomnia. While biological factors are an important aspect of insomnia, the sociocultural model of insomnia explains the environmental factors associated with the disorder.

The sociocultural model of insomnia takes into account the social aspects as well as the cultural applications of the lack of sleep or the unsatisfying sleep that defines insomnia. The social model of sleep disorders focuses on environmental factors such as living, communication, and events that affect sleep disorders. Because the mental disorder of insomnia deals with the topic of sleep deprivation, it is important to study the effects of sleep deprivation on the ability to perform tasks. Certain authors sought to find the cognitive effects that would be found when depriving willing participants of sleep for five days. Those who volunteered were studied in a laboratory setting for a total of 11 days in which the first two days the time in bed (TIB) allowed was 8 hours, followed by 5 days of four hours of TIB, and lastly, there were 3 days of eight hours of TIB. Predictions were made based on the days (baseline, restricted sleep, and recovery), the session (morning, noon, and evening), and the context (30 minutes of rest, after testing, and during normal activities). Subjective responses of sleepiness ratings were obtained from the participants, and their ability to perform a monotonous task was observed. Findings showed that sleepiness increased based on the type of day. Sleepiness was highest at the end of the monotonous task, and lowest at the end of the free activity. This implies that latent sleepiness was brought on by the monotonous task. 

The weakness of this study was that the sample size was of only 9 participants, all of which were males. But it was a strong point that the participants all possessed similar characteristics: they were all moderate coffee and alcohol drinkers, they were all healthy, and they were all of the same general cohort. A strength study’s findings that overall subjective sleepiness responses were strongly related to sleep deprivation; this is can be backed up: in reviewing 8 other studies on subjective sleepiness ratings, all eight revealed the similar results.

A study of rural Caucasian fifth grade students sought to experiment with the teacher’s ability to predict sleep-related problems in students based on their performance. This study related to the cultural factor of the rural setting from which the participants were obtained as well as the indirect application toward economical factors such as the economic opportunities that education provides. Questionnaires were given to the teacher and students about problems (of the actual students and not of the teacher) that arose during the day. Students kept sleep diaries of the amount of time spent sleeping and in bed. 