The Effect of Stress Perceived by Adults Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic on Their Sleep Quality

Objective: Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) causes stress, anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance as well as common physical health problems. This study aimed to determine the effect of stress perceived by adults due to the COVID-19 pandemic on their sleep quality. Materials and Methods: Using the snowball sampling method for sample selection, 1.909 individuals aged 18-65 years living in Turkey who agreed to participate in the research, were knowledgeable about the use of social media and were not diagnosed with any psychiatric disorders were included in this descriptive study. Data collection forms were uploaded online and published via Google Forms. The survey was conducted between 30 April and 10 May 2020. Sociodemographic information form, Perceived Stress scale (PSS) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality index (PSQI) were used as data collection tools. Results: The participants scored 15.58 +/- 5.16 points in the perceived insufficient Self-Efficacy subscale, 15.20 +/- 5.41 in the perceived stress/distress subscale and 30.78 +/- 8.85 in the total PSS. The PSQI score was 7.78 +/- 3.46, and 71.6% of the participants had poor sleep quality. A significant, positive and weak relationship was found between the total scores on PSQI and PSS (p<0.05). Conclusion: Results of this study suggest that adults had higher perceived stress and poor sleep quality and their sleep quality decreases as the perceived stress increases during the COVID-19 pandemic.