Saturday, April 11, 2020

Changes in Sleep Pattern, Sense of Time, and Digital Media Use During COVID-19 Lockdown in Italy

Cellini, Nicola, Natale Canale, Giovanna Mioni, and Sebastiano Costa. 2020. “Changes in Sleep Pattern, Sense of Time, and Digital Media Use During COVID-19 Lockdown in Italy.” PsyArXiv. April 11. doi:10.31234/osf.io/284mr

Abstract: Italy is one of the major COVID-19 hotspots. To reduce the spread of the infections and the pressure on Italian healthcare systems, since March 10th 2020, Italy is under a total lockdown, with restrictions on the movement of individuals in the entire nation, forcing people to home confinement. Here we present data from 1310 people living in the Italian territory (Mage= 23.91±3.60 years, 880 females, 501 workers, 809 University students), who completed an online survey from March 24th to March 28th 2020. In the survey, we asked participants to think about their use of digital media before going to bed, their sleep pattern, and their subjective experience of time in the previous week (17th-23rd of March, which was the second week of the lockdown) and to the first week of February (3rd-10th, before any restriction in any Italian area). During the lockdown, people increased the usage of digital media near bedtime, but this change did not affect sleep habits. Nevertheless, during home confinement sleep timing markedly changed, with people going to bed and waking up later, spending more time in bed but, paradoxically, also reporting a lower sleep quality. The increase in sleep difficulties was stronger for people with a higher level of depression, anxiety, and stress symptomatology, and was associated with the feeling of time dilatation. Considering that the lockdown is likely to continue for weeks, research data are urgently needed to support decision-making, to build public awareness, and to provide timely and supportive psychosocial interventions.

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