Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jan;268(1):8-15.
doi: 10.1007/s00415-020-10056-6. Epub 2020 Jul 11.

Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on sleep quality in university students and administration staff

Sara Marelli  1   2 , Alessandra Castelnuovo  1 , Antonella Somma  2 , Vincenza Castronovo  1 , Samantha Mombelli  1 , Daniela Bottoni  1 , Caterina Leitner  1 , Andrea Fossati  2 , Luigi Ferini-Strambi  3   4
Affiliations

Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on sleep quality in university students and administration staff

Sara Marelli et al. J Neurol. 2021 Jan.

Abstract

Introduction: In Italy, lockdown due to COVID-19 health emergency started on March 10 and partially ended on May 3rd, 2020. There was a significant increase of psychological distress and symptoms of mental illness, and worsening of quality of sleep in the general population.

Methods: Participants completed an anonymous web-based survey that include questionnaires about sleep and anxiety and depression symptoms. Our sample included 400 subjects: 307 students (mean age 22.84 ± 2.68) and 93 university administration staff workers (mean age 37.02 ± 12.46).

Results: we found an increase in Bed Time hour, Sleep Latency, and Wake-Up time between before and during COVID-19 emergency and a worsening of sleep quality and of insomnia symptoms. In particular, during the lockdown, the impact of the delay in Bed Time and in Wake-Up was more pronounced in students. In workers, we observed a prevalence of maintenance insomnia before COVID-19 of 24% that significantly increase during COVID-19 reaching 40%, while workers with difficulties in sleep initiation were only 15% that increased to 42%. In our sample, 27.8% showed depressive symptoms, while 34.3% showed anxious symptoms, in particular in students.

Conclusion: The impact of lockdown was greater in students than in workers, and in females than in males. Concerning the psycho-emotional aspects, about one-third of our sample showed depressive or anxious symptoms. The results of our study may provide support for the implementation of some interventions for well-being in pandemic condition.

Keywords: Anxiety; COVID-19; Depression; Sleep.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

This work had no financial support. None of the authors of this manuscript had conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a Change in BT before and during COVID-19 emergency in different chronotypes; b change in WU before and during COVID-19 emergency in different chronotypes
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
a Change in BT before and during COVID-19 emergency in workers and students; b change in WU before and during COVID-19 emergency in workers and students
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Percentage of change in PSQI score (< or ≥ 5) before and during COVID-19 emergency in students (a) and workers (b)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Percentage of change in ISI scores before and during COVID-19 emergency in students (a) and workers (b)
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Percentage of change in ISI Item 1 [sleep initiation], before and during COVID-19 emergency in students (a) and workers (b)
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Percentage of change in ISI Item 2 [sleep maintenance], before and during COVID-19 emergency in students (a) and workers (b)
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Percentage of change in ISI Item 3 [early morning awakening], before and during COVID-19 emergency in students (a) and workers (b)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Istituto Superiore di Sanità. (2020) Comunicato stampa N°19/2020. Studio ISS. Un paziente su cinque positivo al coronavirus ha tra i 19 e i 50 anni. Retrieved from https://www.iss.it/comunicati-stampa1
    1. Bao Y, Sun Y, Meng S, Shi J, Lu L. 2019-nCoV epidemic: address mental health care to empower society. Lancet. 2020 doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30309-3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hawryluck L, Gold WL, Robinson S, Pogorski S, Galea S, Styra R. SARS control and psychological effects of quarantine, Toronto, Canada. Emerg Infect Dis. 2004 doi: 10.3201/eid1007.030703. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wu KK, Chan SK, Ma TM. Posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depression in survivors of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) J Trauma Stress. 2005 doi: 10.1002/jts.20004. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wu KK, Chan SK, Ma TM. Posttraumatic stress after SARS. Emerg Infect Dis. 2005 doi: 10.3201/eid1108.041083. - DOI - PMC - PubMed