ABSTRACT
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in substantial changes in social interactions, work schedules, and socioeconomic factors that may negatively impact sleep onset, maintenance, and quality. The ongoing stress of the pandemic also may exacerbate existing racial/ ethnic disparities in sleep health. In this study, we examined the effects of COVID-19 related distress on sleep-related impairment and sleep disturbances among trauma-exposed South Asian adults. Since a health advantage among foreign-born individuals has been previously noted in the literature (the immigrant paradox), we also assessed whether generational status (i.e., being born in the U.S. or not) moderated associations between COVID-19 related distress and sleep outcomes. Methods: Participants were recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk and completed online surveys on demographic information, the COVID-19 Stress Scale, The Life Events Checklist for DSM-5 (LEC-5), and PROMIS™ Sleep-Related Impairment and Sleep Disturbances Scale. The final sample included 316 South Asian adults residing in the U.S, who had been exposed to a traumatic event at some point in their lifetime. Most participants were male (55%) and U.S.-born citizens (64%), with an average age of 35.32 (SD = 9.52) years. Results: Examination of t-scores for PROMIS™ sleep-related and sleep disturbances revealed that our sample endorsed slightly higher values than the general U.S. population. Greater COVID-19 distress was associated with more sleep disturbances (b = 0.09, p < .001, sr2 = .04) and sleep-related impairment (b = 0.20, p < .001, sr2 = .12). Generational status was not associated with sleep, nor did it modify associations between COVID-19 distress and sleep. Conclusion: In our sample, we found that psychological distress triggered by the pandemic (e.g., fear of contamination, fear of the dangerousness of the virus, socioeconomic worries) was associated with greater sleep difficulties. Our findings highlight the importance of developing targeted interventions to cope with stress and sleep disturbances during the pandemic, particularly among vulnerable populations, such as those exposed to trauma. Our results did not support the immigration paradox: stress and sleep associations were similar regardless of generational status. Future studies are needed to better understand the role of generational status on sleep across different immigrant subgroups.