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Beginning in early 2020, the novel coronavirus was the subject of frequent and sustained news coverage. Building on prior literature on the stress-inducing effects of consuming news during a large-scale crisis, we used network analysis to investigate the association between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) news consumption, COVID-19-related psychological stress, worries about oneself and one’s loved ones getting COVID-19, and sleep quality. Data were collected in March 2020 from 586 adults (45.2% female; 72.9% White) recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk in the U.S. Participants completed online surveys assessing attitudes and behaviors related to COVID-19 and a questionnaire assessing seven domains of sleep quality. Networks were constructed using partial regularized correlation matrices. As hypothesized, COVID-19 news consumption was positively associated with COVID-19-related psychological stress and concerns about one’s loved ones getting COVID-19. However, there were very few associations between COVID-19 news consumption and sleep quality indices, and gender did not moderate any of the observed relationships. This study replicates and extends previous findings that COVID-19-news consumption is linked with psychological stress related to the pandemic, but even under such conditions, sleep quality can be spared due to the pandemic allowing for flexibility in morning work/school schedules.
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This content will become publicly available on January 20, 2026
Uncovering energetic mechanisms that link work stressors to sleep
In this study we examine whether and why daily work stressors are associated with sleep quality and sleep quantity. We draw on the effort-recovery model to test daily relationships between challenge and hindrance work stressors and sleep quality and quantity through physical and psychological fatigue, and vigor. We analyze daily diary data from 98 working sole mothers collected over seven days. The within-person daily hypotheses linking challenge and hindrance stressors to sleep via energetic mediators in our model were not supported. Exploratory analysis revealed several of our hypotheses were supported at the between-person level. Challenge and hindrance stressors were differentially related to psychological fatigue and physical fatigue such that hindrance stressors were positively associated, and challenge stressors were negatively associated. Challenge and hindrance stressors were differentially related to vigor such that hindrance stressors were negatively associated, and challenge stressors were positively associated. Across individuals, challenge and hindrance stressors were indirectly related to sleep quantity through these energetic mediators. This study answers calls for more investigations into mechanisms linking work stressors and sleep, and emphasizes the importance of examining phenomena at multiple levels of analysis. Theoretical and practical implications for the challenge-hindrance framework and effort-recovery model, including the appropriate timeframe for study, are discussed.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1921887
- PAR ID:
- 10577369
- Publisher / Repository:
- Taylor & Francis
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Work & Stress
- ISSN:
- 0267-8373
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 24
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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