COVID-19-Related Emotional Impact and Personal Experiences, Family Income, and Sleep Hygiene of Early Appalachian Adolescents

Abstract

Objectives: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has negatively impacted the lifestyles and routines of adolescents, making it difficult to prioritize sleep. This has raised concerns regarding the sleep hygiene of young individuals, as good sleep is important for healthy youth development. Therefore, understanding how the pandemic has disproportionally affected the sleep of specific youth subgroups is essential for developing interventions to alleviate poor sleep and its adverse consequences. Methods: School-based survey data from the Young Mountaineer Health Study (YMHS) was used to create generalized estimating equation models to predict daytime sleepiness and the amount of sleep among early adolescents on weekday and weekend nights. The study included data from 2,322 students collected over three waves ~6 months apart. COVID-19-related emotional impact (scale range: 5–25) was considered the independent variable. Results: The average age of the participants in wave 1 was 11.50 (male, 44.1%). COVID-19-related emotional impact was positively associated with daytime sleepiness (estimate=0.25, p<0.001) and increased the odds of receiving less than the recommended average amount of sleep on weekdays (odds ratio [OR]=1.05, p<0.001) and weekends (OR=1.04, p<0.001). Conclusions: Thus, we recommend targeting proper sleep interventions for individuals deeply affected by the pandemic and young individuals from lower-income families. Moreover, despite a decrease in the emotional impact of COVID-19 over time, its potential negative effects on sleep persisted. Therefore, efforts should focus on educating young individuals regarding the health benefits of proper sleep, with an emphasis on integrating this information into the health curricula of secondary schools in the Appalachian region.