Dominique Dillon didn’t just fall asleep on live TV — she exposed a crisis befalling Black mothers

Dominique Dillon, a newscaster at Fox 13 Memphis who fell asleep on air, is bringing to light the sleep-deprivation crisis Black moms face.

When Dominique Dillon began her work day recently as a newscaster for FOX 13 in Memphis at 2:30 AM, she was already running on very little sleep. The wife and young mom of two young daughters, including an 8-month-old, had been up all night attempting to get the infant to go down. So by the time she was on air at 8:30 AM, she started to nod off. 

“I opened my eyes, and it was cutting to the next shot, and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness! I can’t believe this just happened to me,’” Dillon said during an appearance on “Today.” “I was pinching myself under the desk like this has to be a nightmare, like one of those work nightmares.” 

Unfortunately, it was not a stress dream; it was, in fact, happening. After a colleague in the studio whispered her name, her eyes fluttered open, and she pressed on, throwing the broadcast over to the weather report. 

The moment has taken on a life of its own, going viral and garnering overwhelming support for the newscaster, who is balancing motherhood and her career. While mortifying beyond belief, the now viral clip sheds light on not just Dillon but on the fact that Black women and Black mothers are seriously sleep-deprived.

At a time when many new parents, but in particular Black parents, are being deprived of sleep, Dillon, with her face delicately resting between her hands as she slept on the air, feels like a sign of the times we’re in. Take the growing discourse around the dying village, strapped resources made worse by the economy and widespread layoffs, and scant maternity leave policies—all of this is compounding into a particularly precarious situation for Black women in the United States. 

New moms are up against a lot that can disrupt their sleep, as it is, from infant feeding and sleeping schedules, to worrying about their new child, depression, anxiety, balancing work and personal life, adjusting to life as a mom, relationship strain, and of course, the physical recovery from birth. However, according to a recent study published by the National Library of Medicine, there are a whole slew of unique challenges that new Black moms can encounter, throwing off their sleep. Some of these challenges include the added stress of racism, financial stress, and the fact that sleep disparities exist for Black women long before they have a child. 

In general, according to findings reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 43.5% of Black American adults complain about not getting enough sleep compared to 30.7%  of white Americans. 

The findings in these recent studies are consistent with previous studies, including another published a little over a decade ago by the National Library of Medicine that sought to better understand why low-income Black new moms were struggling to get a decent night’s sleep.

In the study, the authors wrote that most of the mothers interviewed described their sleep quality as “poor” despite the fact that their babies’ sleep had improved substantially from the newborn phase. According to the study, moms were kept awake by their own internal worry and anxiety, as well as external factors, including work and school commitments, and their home environment. However, among those who reported good sleep quality, the study found that time management and family support were strong factors.

There’s been a lot of talk about the loss of “the village,” the concept that any one family has an entire network of people supporting them as they raise their children. These reports indicate that when a new mom has the village firmly in place, she has the resources to, at the very least, keep up with her sleep better.

“Sleep is a fundamental pillar for optimal cognitive function, physiological processes, emotional regulation, and overall quality of life,” the authors of the previous study wrote.  

According to the Cleveland Clinic, sleep is a body process that allows your body to rest, repair, and restore itself. Meanwhile, the CDC reports that getting enough sleep at night can help prevent sickness, maintain a healthy weight, reduce stress, improve mood and mental health, and more. The body simply needs decent shut-eye for everything else it does to function, and for a mom, even more so. 

The issue of sleep or the lack thereof isn’t going to be solved entirely on the individual level. Sure, moms can cultivate a village to lend a hand, they can have excellent time management, but they can’t solve the world. Presently, the U.S. remains the only “high-income” country without federally mandated paternity leave. Many parenting advocates have stressed why this country needs greater paid paternity leave policies, access to affordable and quality childcare, and new moms need way more support on the systemic level from mental health services to baby supplies than they are given. 

While discussing the viral moment further on “Today,” Dillon said the outpouring of support, including from her employer, has shown her just how many others understand what she’s going through. 

“I just want parents to know that you’re doing a great job. And keep it up,” she said. “And to the mothers out there, those long nights—they’re worth it.”