Abstract
Based on the stress process model, this study explores the impact of time poverty on sleep quality among Chinese adults, as well as its physiological and psychological mechanisms. Data from the “Online Survey on Sleep Status of Chinese Residents” conducted by the Center for Social Psychology, Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2023 were adopted, with 6255 adults as the research subjects. Through a chain mediation analysis, this study examined the direct effect of time poverty on sleep quality as well as the underlying mediating pathways. The empirical tests were divided into three steps: First, examed the chain mediating effects of cognitive evaluation and physical health status between time poverty and sleep quality. Second, examined the chain mediating effects of cognitive evaluation and depression in the relationship between time poverty and sleep quality. Finally, tested the chain mediating effects of cognitive evaluation and anxiety between time poverty and sleep quality. The results show that: 1. Time poverty has a significant negative impact on sleep quality (β = −0.155, p < 0.001). 2. The chain mediating effect of cognitive evaluation and physical health status is significant, with the proportion of the chain indirect effect being 15.50%. 3. The chain mediating effects of cognitive evaluation and depression/anxiety are significant, with the proportions of the chain indirect effects being 11.43% and 12.38%, respectively. 4. In the model, compared with depression (β = −0.159, p < 0.001) or anxiety (β = −0.163, p < 0.001), physical health status (β = 0.335, p < 0.001) has a greater impact on sleep quality. In conclusion, Time poverty can not only directly lead to poor sleep quality, but also indirectly affect sleep quality through independent or chain mediation pathways involving cognitive evaluation, physical health status, or depression/anxiety. This study provides a theoretical basis for individual time management interventions and the formulation of organizational health policies.
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Data availability
The data are now confidential and for internal use only, but they will be shared with the public soon. To know more information about the data, please refer to the Chinese Social Survey (http://css.cssn.cn) conducted by the same institution. Both surveys used the same sampling framework and some of their questions were the same.
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Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely thank the editorial team and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable time, insightful comments, and constructive suggestions, which have greatly improved the quality and clarity of our manuscript. This work was supported by the Graduate Research Innovation Support Program of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (UCASS) project [grant numbers 2025-KY-066].
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NL: Writing—review and editing, Writing— original draft. JW: Writing—original draft, WZ: Review and editing.
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This study was approved by the School of Sociology and Ethnology of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Approval No.: UCASS-SSE2023112001) on November 20, 2023. The scope of the approval included the purpose and content of this study, the investigating procedure and participants. All procedures complied with the Declaration of Helsinki and Chinese national research ethics guidelines.
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Electronic informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to data collection (Dates: 2-28 December/2023). Participants were explicitly informed of: (1) The survey is anonymous, ensuring the confidentiality of each participant; (2) The purpose and value of this research; (3) The collected data will be used solely for research purposes and analyzed at an aggregate level, without individual analysis of any participant’s data; (4) Participation in this questionnaire survey is voluntary, and respondents may withdraw their consent at any time.
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Appendices
Appendix 1
The construct of “cognitive evaluation” in this study was measured using the single item: “I feel stressed due to time urgency.” Responses were recorded on a 5-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating more negative cognitive evaluation. The development of this item was based on the following considerations:
- 1.
It draws on Lazarus and Folkman’s theoretical conceptualization of primary appraisal (evaluation of threat) and secondary appraisal (evaluation of coping resources).
- 2.
It was adapted from the “Overall Appraisal” dimension of the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM) developed by Peacock and Wong (Peacock and Wong, 1990), specifically from the item “I find this situation stressful.”
- 3.
It was contextualized to align with the conceptualization of time poverty in this study.
To evaluate the content validity of this item, three doctoral students and three experts in social psychology were invited to assess its relevance. The content validity index (CVI) was calculated as 0.83 (5 out of 6 raters), indicating satisfactory content validity. However, as this study is part of a primary survey, test-retest reliability was not assessed. We acknowledge the inherent limitations of using a single-item measure in terms of reliability, and this point has been explicitly addressed in the “Research limitations and future prospects” section of the paper.
Appendix 2
Table 10
Table 11
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Liu, N., Wang, J. & Zang, W. Impact of time poverty on sleep quality: an explanation based on the stress process model. Humanit Soc Sci Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-07025-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-07025-1
