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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sleep
Sec. Sleep, Behavior and Mental Health
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frsle.2024.1504489

Associations of Substance Use and Positive Coping Behaviors with Sleep Quality During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Provisionally accepted
Jessica Laudie Jessica Laudie 1Bethany Stangl Bethany Stangl 1Tommy Gunawan Tommy Gunawan 1Melanie L Schwandt Melanie L Schwandt 1Cecilia Cheng Cecilia Cheng 2Amanda Gilmore Amanda Gilmore 3David Goldman David Goldman 1Vijay Arjun Ramchandani Vijay Arjun Ramchandani 1Nancy Diazgranados Nancy Diazgranados 1Jeremy W Luk Jeremy W Luk 1*
  • 1 National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIH), Bethesda, United States
  • 2 The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR China
  • 3 Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The COVID-19 pandemic may have negatively impacted individuals' sleep quality.In this study, we examined changes in sleep quality from before and during the COVID-19 pandemic by history of alcohol use disorder (AUD) and investigated the cross-sectional associations of substance use and positive coping behaviors with sleep quality domains.Methods: Data were drawn from the NIAAA COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Alcohol Study which enrolled participants from June 2020 to December 2022. Participants (N = 373, 50.9% male, mean age = 43.7, 37.3% with AUD history) reported their sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for the month prior to the pandemic and the past month from the time of assessment. Multilevel modeling and linear regression analyses were conducted.Results: Individuals with AUD history reported worse overall sleep quality than those without AUD history both before and during the pandemic. Individuals without AUD history reported an overall increase in PSQI scores (worsened sleep quality) across time. AUD history and substance use behaviors due to the pandemic were associated with worse sleep quality. Conversely, positive coping behaviors (e.g., Take Care of Body, Make Time to Relax, Connect with Others, Multiple Healthy Behaviors) were associated with better sleep quality domains.Conclusions: AUD history, substance use, and positive coping behaviors were correlated with sleep quality during the pandemic. These findings may offer insight into behavioral targets to improve sleep quality in the context of significant stress exposure and can help improve preparedness for future public health crises.

    Keywords: alcohol, Mental Health, sleep quality, Sleep medication, substance use, wellbeing

    Received: 30 Sep 2024; Accepted: 23 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Laudie, Stangl, Gunawan, Schwandt, Cheng, Gilmore, Goldman, Ramchandani, Diazgranados and Luk. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jeremy W Luk, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIH), Bethesda, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.