Objective  To explore the impact of social capital on sleep disorders among adult Tibetan residents in Tibet Autonomous Region (Tibet) and to provide evidences for improving sleep quality in the population.

  Methods  Relevant data on 7 737 Tibetan community residents aged 18 – 79 years were extracted from the base line survey of The China Multi-Ethnic Cohort (CMEC) conducted in Tibet with stratified multistage cluster sampling and face-to-face questionnaire interviews from May 2018 to September 2019. Multivariate unconditional logistic regression was used to analyze the correlation of social capital with sleep disorders in the residents.

  Results  Sleep disorders were reported by 31.41% (2430) of the residents surveyed. The residents′ mean score for family social capital and community/social capital were 8.2 and 10.0, respectively. After adjusting for demographic characteristics and health risk factors, the residents with higher family social capital were less likely to have sleep disorders (odds ratio OR = 0.97, 95% confidence interval 95% CI: 0.95 – 0.99); no significant effect of community/social capital on sleep disorder was observed (P > 0.05). After stratified by age, the elder residents (≥ 50 years) with higher family social capital were less likely to have sleep disorders (OR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.92 – 0.99); while, the impact of family social capital and community/social capital on sleep disorders was not significant for the residents under 50 years old (P > 0.05).

  Conclusion  The social capital is related to the occurrence of sleep disorders among adult Tibetan residents in Tibet. The result should be concerned when developing interventions on sleep disorder in the population.