COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Sleep and Mental Health Disparities among Students at a Hispanic and Minority-Serving Institution

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted nearly all sectors of our population, including college students, who continue to share disproportionate rate of disparities. In this study, we aimed to identity key sleep health characteristics, including markers for obstructive sleep apnea, as well as its relation to mental health, physical health, and academic performance. Methods: A cross-sectional study design with online survey dissemination was used. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were conducted among a predominantly minority population. Results: Results show that nearly 78% of the population reported that the pandemic impacted their mental or physical health, while over 83% reported daytime tiredness/fatigue/sleepiness, and another 61% reported sleeping less than seven hours during weekdays. Among other associations, pandemic-related poor sleep health, including sleeping less than seven hours, was associated with daytime tiredness/fatigue/sleepiness, psychological distress, as well as low mental health and physical health. A severe marker for obstructive sleep apnea, having stopped breathing during sleep, was also associated with psychological distress during the pandemic. Conclusions: Sleep health interventions are critical for optimizing college student health and well-being, including improving mental health outcomes.

Relations among perceived stress, fatigue, and sleepiness, and their effects on the ambulatory arterial stiffness index in medical staff: A cross-sectional study

“…Sleepiness, a consequence of disordered, poor, and insufficient sleep, is defined in the MeSH database as a compelling urge to sleep. The main causes of sleepiness are social environment (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic), psychological distress, poor mental health, insufficient sleep, and disease (e.g., obstructive sleep apnea) ( Becerra et al, 2022 ; Thorarinsdottir et al, 2022 ). A link between daytime sleepiness and cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension and stroke—which are related to arterial stiffness—is well established ( Yang et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Fatigue, defined as “a subjectively unpleasant symptom that incorporates total body feelings ranging from tiredness to exhaustion, creating an unrelenting overall condition which interferes with individuals’ ability to function at normal capacity” ( Ream and Richardson, 1996 ), is common among medical staff due to their work environment and pressures. Chronic fatigue and adverse cardiovascular events are associated ( Naess et al, 2005 ) and fatigue is linked to sleepiness ( Kim et al, 2019 ), which indicates poor health ( Becerra et al, 2022 ). Thus, fatigue may also lead to a decline in work quality among medical staff.…”

How COVID-19 Information Fear of Missing out Increases the Risk of Depression and Anxiety: Roles of Resilience and Personality Types

“…The two probable explanations for these results are presented below. On the one hand, individuals with high COVID-19 information FOMO tend to report a high level of daytime tiredness; daytime tiredness is linked to mental health during COVID-19 [5,64]. Hence, individuals with high COVID-19 information FOMO experience high daytime tiredness, and daytime tiredness may cause mental health problems (e.g., depression and anxiety).…”

Potentially traumatic pandemic stressors and anxiety‐related sleep disturbance among Latinx persons

“…Emerging work has revealed an inverse association between psychological resilience during the pandemic and anxiety‐related sleep disturbances among Latinx persons (Mayorga, Garey, et al., 2022), and other work demonstrates a positive association between becoming pregnant during the COVID‐19 pandemic and increased stress and sleep disturbance among Latinx women (Felder et al., 2023). In a sample of majority Latinx college students, pandemic‐related poor sleep health was found to predict more daytime fatigue and worse mental and physical health (Becerra et al., 2022). Although persons who identify as Latinx are subject to amplified stress symptoms from the COVID‐19 pandemic and given their background as a preexisting health disparities group (Lund, 2021), no work to date has examined the additive effect of specific, traumatic pandemic stressors (i.e., hospitalization and the death of family members) on sleep‐related outcomes.…”