Sleep health, its intraindividuality, and perceived stress in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: To describe the changes in sleep health domains and examine the associations between the repeated measures and intraindividual variability (IIV) of these domains and perceived stress. Participants : A diverse racial and ethnic group of first-year college students ( N  = 23, 78.3% female, aged 17-18) attending in-person classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods : Sleep health domains were determined using 7-day wrist actigraph and daily sleep diaries, and perceived stress scale was completed at 1-month intervals across 3 months. Results : Sleep timing, regularity, and alertness during daytime demonstrated statistically significant changes between three timepoints. Greater stress was associated with more irregularity ( B  = 2.25 [.87-3.62], p  < .001), more dissatisfaction in sleep ( B  = .04 [.02-.19], p  < .01), alertness during daytime ( B  = .18 [.05-.31], p  < .001), and greater IIV (ie, fluctuations) in sleep satisfaction ( B  = .083 [.02, .15], p  < .01). Conclusion : These findings offer insights for future researchers to facilitate intervention development to promote mental and sleep health among college students.