Balancing sleep, work and well-being during lockdown : exploring the relationships between working women's mood and sleep status during New Zealand's COVID-19 lockdown : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology, Te Kura Hinengaro Tangata School of Psychology, Te Kunenga Ki Pūreheroa Massey University, Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

Background: Sleep is important for good physical and mental health and the pandemic lockdown created a unique situation that impacted psychological and social drivers for sleeping well. The purpose of this study was to examine how the COVID-19 lockdown affected sleep, mood and loneliness in working women in New Zealand (NZ). The main hypothesis was that indicators of poorer mood and increased loneliness during the confinement would predict poorer subjective sleep quality. Methods: A sample of 498 female workers, aged 21-83 (N = 498) completed questionnaires pertaining to demographic data, and including the Pittsburgh Sleep Index Questionnaire (PSQI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales (HADS) and de Jong Gierveld Loneliness scale - 6 item (GLS-6) during the first lockdown in NZ, April 2020. The hypothesis was tested in two steps: a confirmatory factor analysis was used to test how the key measures performed in this unique COVID-19 lockdown situation and on this population. Secondly, a full structural model was run to test the predictive relationship between mood and loneliness on subjective sleep quality. Results: Using standardised cut offs within the scales, 54.8% of the NZ working women were identified as ‘poor sleepers’, 42.4% were borderline or at risk for anxiety and 31% for depression. Furthermore, 47.3% reported overall loneliness with 52.7% reporting being socially lonely and 89.3% emotionally lonely. Anxiety and depression were significantly predictive (p< 0.001) of subjective sleep quality (b = .49 and .39 respectively), however social and emotional loneliness were not. The fit of the predictive model provided a good overall fit given its complexity however, CFA results indicated the key measures did not perform well in a pandemic context compared to previous research in a non-pandemic context. Conclusion: Pandemic-related lockdown restrictions contributed to poor mood, subjective sleep quality, and elevated loneliness in NZ working women. It found that mood was predictive of poor sleep quality but loneliness was not. This is a unique insight into psycho-social impacts on sleep and well-being in NZ working women during a rigorous COVID-19 lockdown whilst the infection rates remained low. These findings may help promote practices that support well-being and subsequent sleep health for working women, both in day-to-day life as well in general crises situation.