Summary Emerging work suggests that experiences of racial discrimination may impact overall sleep health; however, there is limited work on the link between racial microaggressions and sleep. Using weekly diary data, the current study examined young adults’ weekly reports of racial microaggressions across 4 weeks, and their relation to weekly reports of sleep‐onset latency, reduced total sleep time and poorer sleep quality. This design allowed us to examine how within‐person fluctuations in racial microaggressions corresponded with young adults’ sleep. Data were collected among 140 African American (62.1%) and Latinx (37.9%) college students attending a Midwestern University. Students were randomly selected to participate; they were, on average, 20.70 years old (SD = 1.22) and the majority were female (69.3%). Participants self‐reported their racial microaggressions and sleep behaviours (i.e. sleep‐onset latency, total sleep time and sleep quality) each week (across 4 weeks). Multilevel modelling showed significant within‐person effects of racial microaggressions for sleep onset and sleep quality, but not for total sleep duration. Specifically, on weeks that individuals reported increases in racial microaggressions, they reported greater sleep‐onset duration and poorer sleep quality. The current findings provide preliminary evidence that racial microaggressions are associated with sleep‐onset durations and sleep quality among African American and Latinx young adults. Although racial microaggressions are often considered subtle, they may impact the sleep health of young adults in marginalized groups.

Background Firefighters are often exposed to occupational stressors that can result in psychological distress (ie, anxiety and depression) and burnout. These occupational stressors have only intensified with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and will likely persist in the postpandemic world. Objective To address occupational stressors confronting firefighters, we pilot tested a novel, cost-effective, smartphone app–based meditation intervention created by Healthy Minds Innovations that focused on mindfulness (awareness) training along with practices designed to cultivate positive relationships (connection), insight into the nature of the self (insight), and a sense of purpose in the context of challenge (purpose) with a sample of professional firefighters from a large metropolitan area in southwestern United States. Methods A total of 35 participants were recruited from a closed online group listserv and completed the self-guided 10-unit meditation app over the course of 10 days, at 1 unit per day. We assessed anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, burnout, and negative affect as well as saliva diurnal cortisol rhythm, an objective indicator of stress-related biology, before and after use of the meditation app. Results This study demonstrated the meditation app was both feasible and acceptable for use by the majority of firefighters. We also found significant reductions in firefighters’ anxiety (P=.01), burnout (P=.05), and negative affect (P=.04), as well as changes in cortisol diurnal rhythm, such as waking cortisol (P=.02), from before to after use of the meditation app. Conclusions Our study findings call for future research to demonstrate the efficacy of this meditation app to reduce psychological distress and burnout in firefighters.

Although valuable strides have been made in linking racial and ethnic discrimination to health outcomes, scholars have primarily used between-person methodological approaches, which assess the implications of reporting high or low mean levels of discrimination. Alternatively, within-person approaches assess the implications of intraindividual variation, or acute changes, in an individual’s exposure to discrimination. These approaches pose two fundamentally different questions about the association between discrimination and health, and empirical work that disaggregates these effects remains scarce. Scholars have also called for research exploring whether sociocultural factors—such as race-related coping and skin tone—contour these associations. To address gaps in extant literature, the current study examined 1) how an individual’s average level of exposure to discrimination (between-person) and weekly fluctuations in these encounters (within-person) relate to psychosocial health and 2) whether race-related coping (confrontational and passive coping) and skin tone moderate these associations. Analyses were conducted using weekly diary data from African American and Latinx young adults ( n = 140). Findings indicated that reporting higher mean levels of exposure to discrimination and encountering more discrimination than usual on a given week were both associated with poorer psychosocial health. Results also suggest that the efficacy of young adults’ coping mechanisms may depend on their skin tone and the nature of the discriminatory events encountered.

Firefighters are on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, working to transport and treat sick patients. Fear of contracting the virus and constant vigilance of not infecting family members is a significant source of stress and impacts their well-being and physiological functioning. Aimed at addressing this stress, we implemented a 10-day app-based meditation intervention designed to reduce stressful thoughts by promoting mindfulness. Participants (N = 35) were active-duty firefighters from a large metropolitan area in the Southwest. Firefighters completed 10-minute sessions each day with the mobile app created by Healthy Minds Innovations (Madison, WI) and reported daily COVID-19-related stress and well-being. Saliva samples were taken before and after the intervention. After the intervention, firefighters reported lower anxiety symptoms, (t(32)=2.70, p=.01), lower burnout, (t(32)=2.03, p=.05), and lower negative affect, (t(25)=2.50, p=.02), lower waking cortisol (t(18) = 2.61, p =.02), and lower cortisol output across the day, (t(15) = 2.127, p =.05). Results suggest the meditation app reduced psychological/physiological distress and could be a fast, low-cost, and scalable intervention to promote well-being among firefighters.

BACKGROUND Firefighters are often exposed to occupational stressors that can result in psychological distress. These occupational stressors have only intensified with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and will likely persist in the post-pandemic world. OBJECTIVE To address occupational stressors confronting firefighters and to improve their well-being, we pilot tested a novel, cost-effective smartphone-based meditation intervention created by Healthy Minds Innovations (Madison, WI) that focused on trainings in mindfulness (awareness) along with practices designed to cultivate positive relationships (connection), insight into the nature of the self (insight), as well as sense of purpose in the context of challenge (purpose) with a sample of professional firefighters from a large metropolitan area in the southwestern United States. METHODS Participants (N = 35) completed the self-guided, 10-unit meditation app over the course of 10 days, with one unit per day. We assessed several aspects of psychological well-being (anxiety, depression, burnout, and negative affect) and an objective indicator of stress-related biology, saliva diurnal cortisol rhythm, before and after use of the meditation app. RESULTS The study demonstrated the meditation app was both feasible and acceptable for use with firefighters. We also found significant reductions in firefighters’ anxiety, burnout, and negative affect, as well as changes in cortisol diurnal rhythm from before to after use of the meditation app. CONCLUSIONS Findings support future research to demonstrate efficacy of this meditation app to improve firefighter well-being.