Sleep health, its intraindividuality, and perceived stress in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: To describe the changes in sleep health domains and examine the associations between the repeated measures and intraindividual variability (IIV) of these domains and perceived stress. Participants: A diverse racial and ethnic group of first-year college students (N = 23, 78.3% female, aged 17–18) attending in-person classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Sleep health domains were determined using 7-day wrist actigraph and daily sleep diaries, and perceived stress scale was completed at 1-month intervals across 3 months. Results: Sleep timing, regularity, and alertness during daytime demonstrated statistically significant changes between three timepoints. Greater stress was associated with more irregularity (B = 2.25 [.87–3.62], p <.001), more dissatisfaction in sleep (B =.04 [.02–.19], p <.01), alertness during daytime (B =.18 [.05–.31], p <.001), and greater IIV (ie, fluctuations) in sleep satisfaction (B =.083 [.02,.15], p <.01). Conclusion: These findings offer insights for future researchers to facilitate intervention development to promote mental and sleep health among college students.