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Sleep in adults from the UK during the first few months of the coronavirus outbreak

Sleep in adults from the UK during the first few months of the coronavirus outbreak

Madrid-Valero, Juan J., Bowling, Natalie ORCID: 0000-0001-5784-3664, Vafeiadou, Aikaterini, Buysse, Daniel J., Banissy, Michael J. and Gregory, Alice (2021) Sleep in adults from the UK during the first few months of the coronavirus outbreak. Journal of Sleep Research, 31 (2):e13465. ISSN 0962-1105 (Print), 1365-2869 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13465)

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Abstract

The coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) emerged at the end of 2019 and quickly spread around the world. Measures to counter COVID-19, including social distancing and lockdowns, created an unusual situation which had the potential to impact a variety of behaviors, including sleep, which is crucial for health and well-being. Data were obtained through an online survey. The total sample comprised 19,482 participants from the UK. Participants were asked several questions regarding sleep quality and quantity. Each participant completed the questionnaires once during a data collection period spanning 20th January to 31st March. Data provided by different participants during different weeks (spanning time-periods just before COVID-19 was identified in the UK and during the early weeks following its arrival) were compared using ANOVA tests and regressions. Regression analyses controlling for age, sex and ethnicity revealed significant associations of small magnitude between date of survey completion and sleep quality, sleep latency, number of awakenings and composite score of poor sleep quality. These analyses also indicated small increases in eveningness tendency as the study progressed. There was no change in sleep duration or time spent awake at night. The COVID-19 outbreak did not appear to impact negatively sleep in a substantial manner during the early stages in the UK. The small increases in sleep quality variables (except for time spent awake at night and sleep duration) and eveningness are nonetheless of interest. Further research is needed to understand how best to provide support to those most in need of a good night’s sleep during this unprecedented time.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © 2021 The Authors. Journal of Sleep Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Sleep Research Society This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
Uncontrolled Keywords: chronotype; coronavirus; COVID-19; pandemic; sleep duration; sleep quality
Subjects: R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group: Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences
Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > School of Human Sciences (HUM)
Last Modified: 02 Mar 2022 15:41
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/33487

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