Impact of COVID-19 social-distancing on sleep timing and duration during a university semester

Abstract

Social-distancing directives to contain community transmission of the COVID-19 virus can be expected to affect sleep timing, duration or quality. Remote work or school may increase time available for sleep, with benefits for immune function and mental health, particularly in those individuals who obtain less sleep than age-adjusted recommendations. Young adults are thought to regularly carry significant sleep debt related in part to misalignment between endogenous circadian clock time and social time. We examined the impact of social-distancing measures on sleep in young adults by comparing sleep self-studies submitted by students enrolled in a university course during the 2020 summer session (entirely remote instruction, N = 80) with self-studies submitted by students enrolled in the same course during previous summer semesters (on-campus instruction, N = 452; cross-sectional study design). Self-studies included 2–8 week sleep diaries, two chronotype questionnaires, written reports, and sleep tracker (Fitbit) data from a subsample. Students in the 2020 remote instruction semester slept later, less efficiently, less at night and more in the day, but did not sleep more overall despite online, asynchronous classes and ~44% fewer work days compared to students in previous summers. Subjectively, the net impact on sleep was judged as positive or negative in equal numbers of students, with students identifying as evening types significantly more likely to report a positive impact, and morning types a negative impact. Several features of the data suggest that the average amount of sleep reported by students in this summer course, historically and during the 2020 remote school semester, represents a homeostatic balance, rather than a chronic deficit. Regardless of the interpretation, the results provide additional evidence that social-distancing measures affect sleep in heterogeneous ways.

Changes in sleep pattern and dream activity across and after the COVID‐19 lockdown in Italy: A longitudinal observational study

“…In general, studies worldwide described a shift to later bedtime and rise time during the quarantine period (Cellini et al, 2020 ; Gupta, 2020 ; Wright et al, 2020 ). Also, the reduced sunlight exposure may have concurred to the reduction of the externally imposed sleep‐wake rhythms (Smit et al, 2021 ). However, we should consider that the increase in time spent in bed was not paralleled by the same rise of the effective sleeping time.…”

Association of delayed sleep/wake rhythm with depression during the first COVID-19 lockdown in France

“…Reasons for exclusions were 1) age below 18 (n = 18 participants); 2) shift in MSFsc >4 hours (n = 78 participants) as expected changes in MSFsc were estimated to be around 30 minutes with a SD between 1:15 and 1:45. 44,45 This 4h value (>30 min + 2 SD) allowed to exclude outliers mainly due to misunderstandings (eg, we noticed that some participants had recorded bedtimes and wake-up times in 12-hour instead of 24-hour format), a table is provided with characteristics of these outliers (Supplementary Table 1); The final sample consisted of 2513 participants, among which 285 were excluded from the multivariate analysis because of missing data for the main outcome or at least one of the adjustment variables.…”

“…The population consisted of 77% women, of median (IQR) age 39 (30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48) years. Two-thirds of participants were employees with daytime working hours before the confinement and worked from home during the lockdown.…”

Association of Delayed Sleep/Wake Rhythm with Depression During the First COVID-19 Lockdown in France

“…These findings of a later and longer sleep during weekdays, thus reducing social jetlag, corroborate previous studies performed during the lockdown: Leone et al found a 36-minute delay in MSFsc in the Argentina’s population 44 and Smit et al reported a 30-minute delay in sleep schedule in Canadian students. 45 Such change in sleep-wake rhythm during the week may be related to the fact that most participants of our study worked from home during the lockdown, with more flexible schedules and a decrease in exposure to external synchronizers such as outdoor daylight and social constraints. 22 It may also result from the psychological distress linked to the pandemic.…”