212 An Election During a Pandemic: Relationship Between Political Affiliation and Pandemic-Related Sleep and Dreams

Abstract Introduction In 2020, a global pandemic impacted sleep for many people in the US, which was also experiencing an extremely contentious election season. These overlapped somewhat, as the liberal/left side of the political spectrum was more vocal about the dangers of COVID-19 and the pandemic, while the conservative/right frequently expressed less concern about COVID-related risks. Perhaps this confluence was borne out in sleep quality and dreams. Methods A sample of N=419 US adults completed online surveys about sleep and COVID-19 experiences. Participants rated their political affiliation on a scale of 0 (Very Conservative/Right) to 6 (Very Liberal/Left). Participants were also asked whether, since the pandemic, their sleep improved or worsened, whether their dream content has become more positive (more or less positive content, versus same) or negative (more or less negative content, versus same), the number of nightmares they recall, and whether their dreams included themes of politics and/or COVID. Regression analyses examined political affiliation as independent variable with ordinal logistic analyses for sleep improvement/worsening, multinomial logistic analyses for positive/negative content, linear regression analyses for nightmare frequency, and binary logistic analyses for presence of political/COVID themes in dreams. All analyses were adjusted for age, sex, and race/ethnicity. Results Greater liberal/left affiliation was associated with a greater likelihood of worsened sleep (oOR=1.20, p=0.002), but no difference in likelihood of sleep improvement. Greater liberal/left affiliation was associated with a greater likelihood of decreased positive dream content (RRR=1.29, p=0.001) but no different in likelihood of increased positive content. In addition, greater liberal/left affiliation was associated with an increased likelihood of more negative dream content (RRR=1.33, p<0.0005) but no difference in the experience of less negative content. Liberal/left affiliation was also associated with more frequent nightmares during the pandemic (B=1.55, p=0.019), and more political dreams (OR=1.29, p=0.010) but no difference in COVID-related dreams. Conclusion During the COVID-19 pandemic, more liberal/left individuals reported a greater degree of worsening sleep and dream content that was less positive and more negative in nature. Though there was no difference in COVID-related dream content, there was a difference in political content in dreams. Support (if any) None