Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Oct;39(4):828-840.
doi: 10.1002/smi.3223. Epub 2023 Jan 30.

Unravelling the link between sleep and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic

Juan González-Hijón  1 , Anna K Kähler  2 , Emma M Frans  2 , Unnur A Valdimarsdóttir  1   3   4 , Patrick F Sullivan  2   5   6 , Fang Fang  1 , Anikó Lovik  1
Affiliations

Unravelling the link between sleep and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic

Juan González-Hijón et al. Stress Health. 2023 Oct.

Abstract

The emergence of COVID-19 brought unparalleled changes in people's lifestyle, including sleep. We aimed to assess the bidirectional association between sleep quality and mental health and describe how sleep and mental health were affected in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic (between June 2020 and September 2021). Data were obtained from the Omtanke2020 study. Participants who completed the baseline survey and each of the 8 monthly follow-up surveys were included (N = 9035). We described the distribution of sleep and mental health in the different Swedish regions using maps and over the study period with longitudinal graphs adjusting for sex, age, recruitment type (self-recruitment or invitation), and COVID-19 status. The inner relationships between mental health, sleep and Covid infection were described through relative importance networks. Finally, we modelled how mental health affects sleep and vice versa using generalized estimating equations with different adjustments. Seasonal and north-south regional variations were found in sleep and mental health outcomes at baseline and attenuated over time. The seasonal variation of sleep and mental health correlated moderately with the incidence rate of COVID-19 in the sample. Networks indicate that the relationship between COVID-19 incidence and mental health varies over time. We observed a bidirectional relationship between sleep quality and quantity at baseline and mental health at follow-up and vice versa. Sleep quality and quantity at baseline was associated with adverse symptom trajectories of mental health at follow-up, and vice versa, during the COVID-19 pandemic. There was also a weak relationship between COVID-19 incidence, sleep, and mental health.

Keywords: COVID-19; Omtanke2020 study; Sweden; anxiety; depression; mental health; sleep; stress.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Ahmed, M. Z., Ahmed, O., Aibao, Z, et al. (2020). Epidemic of COVID-19 in China and associated psychological problems. Asian Journal Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102092
    1. Alvaro, P. K., Roberts, R. M., & Harris, J. K. (2013). A systematic Review assessing bidirectionality between sleep disturbances, anxiety, and depression. Sleep, 36(7), 1059-1068. https://doi.org/10.5665/sleep.2810
    1. Arbetslöshet i sverige [Internet]. (2021). Statistiska centralbyrån. cited 2022 Feb 10. Available from https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/sverige-i-siffror/samhallets-ekonomi/...
    1. Arnberg, F. K., Gudmundsdóttir, R., Butwicka, A., Fang, F., Lichtenstein, P., Hultman, C. M., & Valdimarsdottir, U. A. (2015). Psychiatric disorders and suicide attempts in Swedish survivors of the 2004 southeast Asia tsunami: A 5 year matched cohort study. The Lancet Psychiatry, 2(9), 817-824. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(15)00124-8
    1. Boyraz, G., Legros, D. N., & Tigershtrom, A. (2020). COVID-19 and traumatic stress: The role of perceived vulnerability, COVID-19-related worries, and social isolation. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 76, 102307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102307

LinkOut - more resources