Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on sleep quality in university students and administration staff

Abstract

Introduction In Italy, lockdown due to COVID-19 health emergency started on March 10 and partially ended on May 3rd, 2020. There was a significant increase of psychological distress and symptoms of mental illness, and worsening of quality of sleep in the general population. Methods Participants completed an anonymous web-based survey that include questionnaires about sleep and anxiety and depression symptoms. Our sample included 400 subjects: 307 students (mean age 22.84 ± 2.68) and 93 university administration staff workers (mean age 37.02 ± 12.46). Results we found an increase in Bed Time hour, Sleep Latency, and Wake-Up time between before and during COVID-19 emergency and a worsening of sleep quality and of insomnia symptoms. In particular, during the lockdown, the impact of the delay in Bed Time and in Wake-Up was more pronounced in students. In workers, we observed a prevalence of maintenance insomnia before COVID-19 of 24% that significantly increase during COVID-19 reaching 40%, while workers with difficulties in sleep initiation were only 15% that increased to 42%. In our sample, 27.8% showed depressive symptoms, while 34.3% showed anxious symptoms, in particular in students. Conclusion The impact of lockdown was greater in students than in workers, and in females than in males. Concerning the psycho-emotional aspects, about one-third of our sample showed depressive or anxious symptoms. The results of our study may provide support for the implementation of some interventions for well-being in pandemic condition.

Changes in the behavioural determinants of health during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic: gender, socioeconomic and ethnic inequalities in 5 British cohort studies

“…3 4 The behaviours investigated here include physical activity, diet, alcohol, and sleep 5 -likely key contributors to existing health inequalities 6 and indirectly implicated in inequalities arising due to COVID-19 given their link with outcomes such as obesity and diabetes. 7 While empirical evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on such behaviours is emerging, [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] it is currently difficult to interpret for multiple reasons. First, generalising from one study location and/or period of data collection to another is complicated by the vastly different societal responses to COVID-19 which could plausibly impact on such behaviours, such as restrictions to movement, access to restaurants/pubs, and access to support services to reduce substance use.…”

“…which was not certified by peer review) preprint The copyright holder for this this version posted September 17, 2020.; https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.Pre-and during COVID-19 lockdown distributions of health-related behaviours, by cohort. Note: dark green shows overlap, estimates are weighted to account for survey non-response; alcohol consumption was derived as >36,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], no drinks per month..CC-BY 4.0 International licenseIt is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review) preprint The copyright holder for this this version posted September 17, 2020. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.Differences in multiple health behaviours during COVID-19 lockdown (May 2020) compared with prior levels, according to gender, education attainment, and ethnicity: a meta-analysis of 5 cohort studies.…”

Sleep during COVID-19 lockdown: a cross-cultural pilot study

“…In addition, the concern about the disease itself, the worry about personal health and about one's family's health, as well as the anxiety about the future of one's workplace and financial situation had a strong impact upon the psychological state of the general population. Numerous reports show a decline in mental health, quality of 3 3 life and quality of sleep in populations affected by the pandemic [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] , with healthcare workers under the most pressure 17,18 .…”

“…First, we hypothesized that sleep quality negatively correlates to the amount of worrying about the ongoing pandemic. Furthermore, based on the study by Blume et al 6 , we hypothesized that, during lockdown, there will be a shift of sleep times to later hours during workdays and consequently an attenuation of the social jetlag, as well as lower sleep quality [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] given the collateral damage of the lockdown measures.…”

Home confinement during the COVID-19: day-to-day associations of sleep quality with rumination, psychotic-like experiences and somatic symptoms

“…Whereas sleep deprivation and sleep restriction have been consistently associated with increased negative affect 61 , pain sensitivity 62 , and psychotic-like phenomena 20,63 , links between individual differences in sleep duration and negative health outcomes have only been reported in much larger samples and specifically in the case of extremely short and long sleep durations 64,65 . Moreover, studies suggest that home confinement provided more freedom to schedule bed-and wake-up times leading to an increase in the time spent in bed 18,66 . Time in bed however does not necessarily correlate with sleep duration, and what is more, it may reduce the perceived quality of sleep, especially in those individuals who are vulnerable to sleep problems 26 .…”