Keeps me awake at night: The potential of the COVID-19 pandemic to affect sleep quality among sexual minority men in the U.S.A.

Abstract

Sleep health, a crucial component and predictor of physical and mental health, has likely been adversely impacted by the stress and disruption wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. This brief report sought to assess self-reported sleep quality among sexual minority men across the United States in the early months of the pandemic. In a cross-sectional online survey of a racially diverse sample of 477 sexual minority men (mean age = 41.2 years; range = 18–75 years) recruited from popular geosocial networking apps in early May 2020, participants reported on their recent experiences regarding sleep and mental health (anxiety, depression, and pessimistic repetitive future thinking). Almost 75% endorsed some level of restless sleep in the past week, 203 (42.6%) reported worse-than-usual sleep quality since the pandemic, and 77 (16.1%) reported sleeping longer than usual but not feeling better rested. Furthermore, of the 280 reporting worse-than-usual sleep or feeling not rested, almost 85% reported that worry about the pandemic had been contributing to their troubles with falling or staying asleep. Rates of worsened sleep were highest among those whose financial situation had been adversely affected and those not in full-time employment, whereas restless sleep was highest among those in the Northeast region of the United States, which, during the study’s time frame of late April and early May 2020, was the most severely affected by the pandemic. Greater emotional distress was associated with each sleep variable. Addressing and improving sleep health is critical to overall health and requires particular attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public Significance Statement—This study documents the detrimental impact that the COVID-19 pandemic may have exerted on self-reported sleep health in a sample of sexual minority men in the United States. More than half of participants reported experiencing decreased sleep quality or not feeling rested in the early months of the pandemic, and this was even more prevalent among those whose financial situation had recently worsened and/or who were not in full-time employment. Sleep disturbance was associated with greater emotional distress, further highlighting for health care providers the importance of attending to, and improving, sleep health in the community. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)