Sleep and Alcohol Use Patterns During Federal Holidays and Daylight Saving Time Transitions in the United States

Abstract

We conducted a retrospective observational study using remote wearable and mobile application data to evaluate whether US public holidays or Daylight Saving Time transitions were associated with significant changes in sleep behaviors, including sleep duration, sleep onset and offset, and the consistency of sleep timing, as well as changes in the point prevalence of alcohol use. These metrics were analyzed using objective, high resolution sleep-wake data (10,350,760 sleep episodes) and 5,777,008 survey responses of 24,250 US subscribers (74.5% male; mean age of 37.6 ± 9.8 years) to the wrist-worn biometric device platform, WHOOP (Boston, Massachusetts, United States), who were active users during 1 May 2020, through 1 May 2021. Compared to baseline, statistically significant differences in sleep and alcohol measures were found on most DST transitions, US public holidays, and their eves. For example, New Year’s Eve corresponded with a sleep consistency decrease of 13.8 ± 0.3%, a sleep onset delay of 88.9 ± 3.2 min (00:01 vs. 22:33 baseline) later, a sleep offset delay of 78.1 ± 3.1 min (07:56 vs. 06:39), and an increase in the prevalence of alcohol consumption, with more than twice as many participants having reported alcohol consumption [+138.0% ± 6.7 (74.2% vs. 31.2%)] compared to baseline. In this analysis of a non-random sample of mostly male subscribers conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of US public holidays and holiday eves were associated with sample-level increases in sleep duration, decreases in sleep consistency, later sleep onset and offset, and increases in the prevalence of alcohol consumption. Future work would be warranted to explore the generalizability of these findings and their public health implications, including in more representative samples and over longer time intervals.

Characterizing Gun Violence by Time, Day of the Week, Holidays, and Month in 6 US Cities, 2015-2021

“…The results suggest that gunshot events may be impacted by standard work or school schedules, since there were fewer gunshot events during the day and on non-holidays or weekends. Weekends and holidays are associated with changes in sleep timing and duration and substance use (Heacock et al, 2022). We do not have information about the person who fired the gun (e.g., age, sex, any substance use, relationship to victim, location relative to home [Messner and Tardiff, 1985]), which is important for further study.…”

Are workplace factors associated with employee alcohol use? The WIRUS cross-sectional study

“…Working from holiday home constitutes a non-domestic activity where work is performed in a context more similar to vacations. Vacations and holidays typically involve greater alcohol exposure, potentially resulting in higher consumption levels 83 84…”

The controversy over daylight saving time: evidence for and against

“…Incidents of drug overdoses and suicides both show a sharp increase with the start of DST, and a mild decrease with the return to standard time [29]. One study did note an increase in alcohol use on the night of the fall transition [30], although in the year of that study the return to standard time coincided with a popular cultural event (Halloween) that is associated with alcohol use. A 10-year study from southern Spain noted a small but significant increase in myocardial infarction and acute coronary syndrome following the return to standard time in the fall, with no change with the start of DST in the spring.…”