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. 2021 May;50(3):246-260.
doi: 10.1080/16506073.2021.1879241. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Insomnia during the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of depression and COVID-19-related risk factors

Kendra L Pizzonia  1 , Brandon Koscinski  1 , Julie A Suhr  1 , Catherine Accorso  1 , Darcey M Allan  1 , Nicholas P Allan  1   2
Affiliations

Insomnia during the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of depression and COVID-19-related risk factors

Kendra L Pizzonia et al. Cogn Behav Ther. 2021 May.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in dramatic changes to sleep patterns and higher prevalence of insomnia, which threaten overall mental and physical health. We examined whether safety behaviors in response to COVID-19, worry in response to COVID-19, and depression predicted insomnia, with age, race, and sex as covariates. A community sample from the United States (n = 321, Mage = 40.02, SD = 10.54; 53.6% female) recruited using online crowdsourcing completed self-report measures in May of 2020 and again three months later. At baseline, our model accounted for 68.1% of the variance in insomnia, with depression as the only significant predictor (β = .70, p < .001). In the longitudinal analyses, only baseline insomnia symptoms predicted 3-month follow-up insomnia symptoms (β = .70, p < .001; 67.1% of variance). Of note, COVID-19 worry and some COVID-19 safety behaviors were related to 3-month follow-up safety behaviors, but not insomnia. Our findings demonstrated that depression is an important factor to consider for concurrent insomnia symptoms. Our results have implications regarding the development of interventions for insomnia during the COVID-19 pandemic and suggest that clinicians should consider depression when assessing for and treating insomnia symptoms.

Keywords: COVID-19 worry; Insomnia; SEM; depression; transdiagnostic.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Structural equation model examining longitudinal associations between COVID worry, COVID safety behaviors, and insomnia Note. All associations were entered simultaneously in a single structural equation model. Solid lines represent significant standardized associations. Non-significant associations were excluded for the purposes of clarity. In addition, covariates were excluded as they were not significantly associated with any outcomes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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