Impact of COVID-19 anxiety on loneliness and sleep quality of students and professionals in Bangladesh

The COVID-19 pandemic has globally affected almost every aspect of people's lives, especially, their physical and mental well-being. The degree of its impact, however, is different from place-to-place and person-to-person. Although there is a growing literature on the variable impact of the pandemic on the quality of sleep, loneliness, and mood across different populations (e.g., students, health-workers), little is known about how COVID-19-specific anxiety affects the loneliness feeling and sleep quality among students and employees, specifically, in a low-resource region like Bangladesh. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of COVID-related anxiety on the feeling of loneliness and sleep quality of students and professionals in Bangladesh. Additionally, we were interested in comparing the level of COVID-specific anxiety, loneliness, and quality of sleep between these two groups. In total, 211 Bangladeshi students and professionals participated in an online survey in August 2021 when the restriction was still in place. Measures of COVID-19 anxiety, loneliness, and sleep quality scales were used. Regression analysis indicated that overall loneliness and poor sleep quality were strongly predicted by COVID-specific anxiety regardless of being a student or professional. Almost half of the study population (48.3 %) felt severe loneliness and 70.01 % were bad sleepers. Mann-Whitney U test revealed that professionals felt more emotionally lonely, had a higher level of COVID-19-specific anxiety, and had poorer sleep quality than students. A better support structure should be implemented to help the population, particularly, the professionals to lessen their COVID-19-related anxiety and loneliness, and promote better sleep for alleviating stress and improved well-being.