• Xiaolin Zhao, Mengxue Lan, Huixiang Li, and Juan Yang.
• Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China; Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
• Sleep Med. 2021 Jan 1; 77: 339-345.

BackgroundThe 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread worldwide, and its associated stressors have resulted in decreased sleep quality among front-line workers. However, in China, the general public displayed more psychological problems than the front-line workers during the pandemic. Therefore, we investigated the influence of perceived stress on the sleep quality of the non-diseased general public and developed a moderated mediation model to explain said relationship.MethodsQuestionnaire-based surveys were conducted online from February 18-25, 2020 with 1630 Chinese participants (aged 18-68 years).ResultsAround one-third (36.38%) of participants were poor sleepers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, higher perceived stress was significantly associated with higher anxiety levels, which, in turn, was associated with lower sleep quality. Self-esteem moderated the indirect effect of perceived stress on sleep quality through its moderation of the effect of perceived stress on anxiety. This indicated that the mediation effect of anxiety was stronger in those with low levels of self-esteem than in those with high levels of self-esteem.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that both the sleep quality and perceived stress levels of the non-diseased general public required attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings also identify personality characteristics related to better sleep quality, demonstrating the important role of self-esteem in environmental adaptation.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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