Sleep health in U.S. adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Understanding how health has changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is critical to reducing and recovering from the pandemic. This study focused on how sleep health in the United States may have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sleep duration and number of days in the past week with difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, and not feeling rested in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults collected before the COVID-19 outbreak (2018 National Health Interview Survey, n = 19,433) was compared to the same measures in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults collected during the COVID-19 outbreak (2020 Luc.id, n = 2,059). Sleep duration was slightly shorter in 2020 than 2018 (d = -.05). Moreover, the prevalence of insufficient sleep duration (RR = 1.20) and the number of days with difficulty falling asleep (d = .54), difficulty staying asleep (d =.36), and not feeling rested (d = .14) was greater in 2020 than 2018. Twice as many people in 2020 reported experiencing at least one night of difficulty falling asleep (RR = 1.95) or staying asleep (RR = 1.75). Adults younger than 60 and those who belonged to an Asian racial group had larger differences than other age and racial groups between 2018 and 2020. Thus, sleep health in U.S. adults was worse in 2020 than in 2018, particularly in younger and Asian adults. Findings highlight sleep as target in future research and interventions seeking to understand and reduce the effects of the spread of COVID-19.