UK children’s sleep and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Background Sleep and mental wellbeing are intimately linked. This relationship is particularly important to understand as it emerges over childhood. Here we take the opportunity that the COVID-19 pandemic, and resulting lockdown in the UK, presented to study sleep-related behaviour and anxiety in school-aged children. Methods Parents and children were asked to complete questionnaires towards the start of the UK lockdown in April-to-May of 2020, then again in August of that year (when many restrictions had been lifted). We explored children’s emotional responses to the pandemic and sleep patterns at both time points, from the perspectives of parents and children themselves. Results Children’s bedtime anxiety increased at the start of the lockdown as compared to a typical week; however, by August, bedtime anxiety had ameliorated along with children’s COVID-19 related anxiety. Bedtime anxiety predicted how long it took children to fall asleep at night at both the start and the end of the lockdown. Bedtime and wake-up time shifted at the start of lockdown, but interestingly total sleep time was resilient (likely owing to an absence of early school start times) and was not predicted by child anxiety. Conclusions These findings further support calls for sleep quality (in particular, time taken to fall asleep) to be taken as a key indicator of mental health in children, particularly under usual circumstances when schools are open and sleep duration may be less resilient.

Impact of COVID-19 on children

“…Children with disabilities are more susceptible because of their social environments as well as their underlying medical issues. In addition to having a greater chance of getting COVID-19, they are more likely to be poor and of a minority race (and as a result, suffer the negative effects of institutional and personally mediated racism more often than their non-disabled peers) [ 28 , 29 ]. Additionally, they often have several overlapping identities that are linked to worsened inequities, making them and their families targets of stigma and discrimination [ 30 , 31 ].…”

“…Reduced family income will require low-income households to make cuts to necessary food and health care expenses. Using the IMF’s prediction for global economic growth and the historical correlation between Gross domestic product (GDP) and infant mortality in the poor world, it may be estimated that hundreds of thousands more children died in 2020 than would have occurred in a pre-pandemic realistic situation [ 29 ]. In a single year, this would essentially undo the reduction in infant mortality that has occurred over the previous 2 to 3 years [ 46 ].…”

“…Hugs and handshakes help people feel more connected. Isolation and separation, which are used to stop the transmission of the coronavirus, increase susceptibility regardless of the source or aim [ 29 , 51 ].…”

“…Getting infected with COVID-19 does more harm than good. Given the clinical signs and problems, as well as the long-term mental and physical effects, it is preferable to avoid developing the condition in the first place [ 29 ]. It will assist us in avoiding the terrible stress brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the other consequences brought on by COVID-19.…”

Prevalence of sleep problems and habits among children in Saudi Arabia

“…This effect abated once home confinement measures were lifted. 17 Among Turkish children aged 6-12 years, bed-time resistance, sleep-onset delay, and sleep duration fell under the impact of the pandemic, with correlations noted between these disturbances and parental apprehension, helplessness and frightening during COVID-19. 18 Thus, we were encouraged to lead the chance to examine the prevalence of sleep problems in a larger proportion of patients, given the new era changes affecting sleep patterns among children in Saudi Arabia pertaining to the COVID-19 era that has resulted in remarkable changes in lifestyle, as children nowadays use gadgets for long periods, accompanied by unhealthy eating habits in the presence of fast food and increasing obesity rates.…”