Sleep characteristics among black cisgender sexual minority men and black transgender women during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of multi-level COVID-19-related stressors

Objectives: To determine the association between individual, network, and structural COVID-19-related stres-sors and changes in sleep duration and quality among Black cisgender sexual minority men (SMM) and Black transgender women during the COVID-19 peak infectivity rate in Chicago. Methods: From April 20, 2020 to July 31, 2020, we conducted the N2 COVID Study in Chicago (n = 226). The survey included questions regarding multi-level COVID-19-related stressors (eg, food unavailabil-ity, partner violence, housing instability, concern about neighborhood COVID-19), sleep duration, and sleep quality. Results: About 19.5% of our sample reported a shorter duration of sleep during the initial peak COVID-19 infectivity, while 41.2% reported more sleep and 38.9% reported about the same. Compared to the prepan-demic period, 16.8% reported that their sleep quality worsened in the COVID-19 pandemic, while 27.9% reported their sleep quality had improved and 55.3% reported it was about the same. In multivariable mod-els, we found that >1 day of physical stress reaction, worrying about being infected with COVID-19, traveling during COVID-19 being a financial burden, not having enough medication, knowing someone who was diag-nosed with COVID-19, partner violence and housing instability were associated with poor sleep health in the COVID-19 pandemic (adjusted risk ratio: 1.82-3.90, p < .05). Conclusions: These data suggest that COVID-19-related stressors impacted poor sleep duration and quality during the pandemic among this cohort. Multi-level interventions to reduce COVID-19-related stressors (eg, meditation, intimate partner violence prevention and housing programs) may be useful for improving sleep health among Black cisgender sexual minority men and Black transgender women.(c) 2022 National Sleep Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.