Religious attendance, depressive symptoms, and sleep disturbance in older Mexican Americans Terrence D. Hill a , Christopher Ellison b and Lauren Hale c a Sociology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; b Sociology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA; c Public Health, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA ABSTRACT Although numerous studies have shown that religious involvement is associated with better health across the life course, researchers have virtually ignored possible links between religious involvement and sleep-related outcomes. Building on previous work, we tested whether religious attendance is inversely associated with sleep disturbance among older Mexican Americans. We also assessed whether depressive symptoms mediate the association between religious attendance and sleep disturbance. Our mediation model was tested using ordinary least squares regression and conditional process analysis of cross- sectional data from the original cohort of the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly. Regression models show that religious attendance is inversely associated with depressive symptoms and sleep disturbance. Mediation analyses indicate that depressive symptoms mediate the association between religious attendance and sleep disturbance. These findings contribute to previous work by showing that religious attendance may protect against sleep disturbance by promoting mental health among older Mexican Americans. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 30 July 2019 Accepted 29 December 2019 KEYWORDS Religion; sleep; depression; Mexican; Latino Introduction Over the past three decades, numerous studies have shown that religious involvement – indicated by observable feelings, beliefs, activities, and experiences in relation to the spiri- tual, divine, or super-natural – is associated with better health across the life course. The data have been remarkably consistent across indicators of health-related behaviour, mental health, physical health, and mortality risk (Ellison & Levin, 1998; George, Ellison, & Larson, 2002; Hill, Burdette, & Idler, 2011; Idler, 2004, 2011; Koenig, King, & Carson, 2012; Krause & Hayward, 2016). In contrast to these more established literatures, research- ers have virtually ignored possible links between religious involvement and sleep (Ellison, Bradshaw, Storch, Marcum, & Hill, 2011; Ellison, Deangelis, Hill, & Froese, 2019; Hill, Dean- gelis, & Ellison, 2018; Koenig et al., 2012). In fact, a recent review article revealed only seven population-based studies of religious involvement and sleep (Hill et al., 2018). Although the evidence base is thin, the weight of the evidence demonstrates that religious adults (indicated by religious attendance, religious importance, frequency of prayer, sacred © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group CONTACT Terrence D. Hill tdhill@email.arizona.edu MENTAL HEALTH, RELIGION & CULTURE 2020, VOL. 23, NO. 1, 24–37 https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2019.1710829