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 12:3:100032.
doi: 10.1016/j.sleepx.2021.100032. eCollection 2021 Dec.

COVID-19 lockdown - Are Austrians finally able to compensate their sleep debt?

Brigitte Holzinger  1   2 , Lucille Mayer  1 , Franziska Nierwetberg  1 , Gerhard Klösch  1   2   3
Affiliations

COVID-19 lockdown - Are Austrians finally able to compensate their sleep debt?

Brigitte Holzinger et al. Sleep Med X. .

Abstract

In order to control the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Austria was put under national lockdown beginning on March 13, 2020, forcing its inhabitants to live in home confinement. The aim of this study was to measure the impact of the lockdown on sleep and dream behavior in Austrian citizens. 77 participants (50 women, M age = 40.88 years, S D age = 13.72) filled in an online questionnaire during the lockdown between April and May 2020. Sleep quality, sleep quantity, daytime sleepiness, and nightmare frequency were assessed and analyzed in relation to gender, burnout risk, perfectionism and chronotype. Results demonstrated higher subjective sleep quality during lockdown, especially in women. Daytime sleepiness was significantly lower during the lockdown period while sleep duration did not change. Results suggest that sleep issues are less prominent during the COVID-19 lockdown but point to the importance of prevention and treatment of sleep disorders aside from the pandemic. Findings indicate the need for more flexibility in social time structures to relieve those managing tasks from multiple areas of interests such as working mothers. Generalization of results is limited due to small sample size, self-selection bias, and purely subjective measures.

Keywords: Corona; Daytime sleepiness; Dream; Nightmare; Sleep deprivation; Sleep duration; Sleep quality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflicts of Interest associated with this article can be viewed by clicking on the following link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleepx.2021.100032.

References

    1. WHO WHO director-general’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19. 2020, March 9. https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-re...
    1. Blume C., Schmidt M.H., Cajochen C. Effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on human sleep and rest-activity rhythms. Curr Biol. 2020;30(14):R795–R797. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.021. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Eurofound . 2020. Living, working and COVID-19—first findings – April 2020; pp. 1–11.
    1. Hawryluck L., Gold W.L., Robinson S. SARS control and psychological effects of quarantine, toronto, Canada. Emerg Infect Dis. 2004;10(7):7. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wu K.K., Chan S.K., Ma T.M. Posttraumatic stress after SARS. Emerg Infect Dis. 2005;11(8):1297–1300. doi: 10.3201/eid1108.041083. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources