Sleep in university students prior to and during COVID-19 Stay-at-Home orders

Pande

Journal of Public Health Research

2020

131

121

Background: Lockdowns to prevent the community transmission of COVID-19 pandemic has confined the people at home and imposed social restrictions, which is expected to cause alterations in circadian driven sleep-wake schedule and its associated lifestyle behaviors. Design and Methods: An online questionnaire-based survey was conducted to assess the impact of lockdown on the sleep-wake pattern, meal timings and digital media exposure time on the Indian population during lockdown. Responses of 1511 participants (age ≥18 years) were analyzed to assess the effect of gender and age on these parameters before and during lockdown.Results: The sleep onset-wakeup times and meals’ time was significantly delayed during lockdown, which was more pronounced in younger subjects. However, young individuals reported increased sleep duration at this time. Increased digital media duration was evident in all age groups, mainly in males. However, females reported more delay in sleep onset-waking time and first meal timing with longer sleep duration during lockdown.Conclusions: Discord with social and natural cues due to complete lockdown during COVID-19 pandemic leads to a state of social jetlag with delayed sleep-wake, meal timings and excessive digital media exposure among Indians, which has differential impact on males and females as well as across different age groups. These findings have applied implications in sleep health and related behavior during longer social isolation conditions such as current COVID-19 or similar situations and may help to prepare better for any such future events.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Covid-19 Lockdown on Sleep-Wake Schedule and Associated Lifestyle Related Behavior: A National Survey

Pande

Journal of Public Health Research

2020

131

121

“…Although the PSQI global scores increased, indicating worsening of sleep quality, sleep timing delayed (indicative of potentially lower social jetlag due to a discrepancy between endogenous circadian rhythm and actual sleep times imposed by social obligations). This might be favorable or beneficial to students since they no longer need to wake up early for class [ 37 ], but the effects of lockdown were more detrimental to students' sleep, and the sleep timing delay did not strongly affect.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep Pattern Changes in Nursing Students during the COVID-19 Lockdown

Romero‐Blanco

Rodríguez‐Almagro

Onieva-Zafra

et al. 2020

IJERPH

150

114

The prevalence of poor sleep quality among students is very high and, in nursing students, has been associated with reduced performance, behavioral changes, dietary changes, and even aggressive behavior due to changes in sleep patterns. The lockdown in response to COVID-19 may have resulted in lifestyle changes that affected sleep quality. For this reason, the objective of this study is to determine the difference in nursing students’ sleep quality before and during the lockdown, put in place in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. To meet this objective, we conducted a longitudinal observational study on 207 nursing students, with two cut-off points (February and April). The main dependent variable was sleep quality, measured using the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and its seven components. Parametric and nonparametric tests were used for paired and unpaired data, as well as group-stratified analysis. The mean time students spent in bed was 7.6 h (standard deviation (SD) = 1.1 h) before lockdown and 8.5 h (SD = 1.2 h) during lockdown. The PSQI score got 0.91 points worse during lockdown (95% CI, −0.51, −1.31). Of the five components, five were statistically significantly affected (p ≤ 0.05), and of these, the most changed were sleep latency, sleep duration, and sleep efficiency. When stratified by group, we observed differences in women, first-year students, second-year students, alcohol consumers, those of normal weight, and those that live with family. The main conclusion is that although students spent more time in bed, overall sleep quality was worse during lockdown, as well as being worse in five of the seven components.

“…The demographics of the participants are shown in Figure 2). Several previous studies have suggested that public health emergencies may significantly affect the psychological health of college students, and can increase anxiety, fear, and worry (3)(4)(5).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Psychology Interventions on Changing Mental Health Status and Sleep Quality in University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Xiao¹,

Jiang²,

Zhang

et al. 2020

Preprint

Objective We evaluated the change in mental health and sleep quality of college students at four time periods. Methods Mental health status and sleep quality were using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) questionnaire across four time periods. Psychology interventions were carried out from the third period. Results Students in the third period had higher PSQI total scores [mean (SD), 6.01 (3.27)] than those in the first period [5.60 (3.11)], second period [4.17 (2.10)] and fourth period [4.09 (2.80)]. After adjustment for covariates there was a decline of 1.89 points in the PSQI in the fourth period compared with the highest period. The SCL-90-R scores were highest in the second period [121.19 (47.83)], and were higher than the scores in the first [107.60 (52.21)] and second period [107.79 (27.20)] and lowest in the fourth period [97.82 (17.12)]. The decline in scores was 23.38 points after adjustment for covariates. The prevalence of psychological distress and sleep disturbances respectively decreased from 28.6% to 11.7% and from 10.4% to 2.6% comparing to the highest period. Sleep quality showed a significant positive correlation with mental health status. Conclusions The pattern of change in mental health status was different to that of sleep quality. The implementation of comprehensive psychology intervention may improve mental health and sleep quality. These findings may inform public health policy during the reopening of schools in other regions.