Changes in sleep pattern and dream activity across and after the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: A longitudinal observational study

Abstract

A large body of evidence has documented the impact of the global COVID-19 outbreak - and especially the lockdown period - on sleep quality and quantity. Here, we present the first Italian longitudinal study on sleep and COVID-19 considering four different time points collected during lockdown (from 29 March 2020 to 3 May 2020) and a subsequent follow-up period (October 2020). We used an online survey to collect socio-demographic and COVID-19 related information. Subjects were also asked to complete a sleep diary at each time point of the study. Our longitudinal sample included 147 participants. Statistical comparison across time intervals showed remarkable changes in sleep patterns during and after the lockdown. In particular, during lockdown we observed longer sleep latency, less ease of falling asleep, a higher total bedtime, and a lower dream frequency. The week-by-week evaluation described relatively stable patterns in the observed measures during the lockdown period, except for dream frequency, affected by a rapid increase in the early phase of lockdown. Our findings are in line with the current literature. Furthermore, the prospective longitudinal investigation comprising several time points offered the possibility of (a) observing the temporal dynamics and the different entities of such changes over time, and (b) reducing the typical memory bias for these studies.

Keywords: COVID-19 lockdown; dreaming; longitudinal study; sleep diary; sleep pattern.

FIGURE 1

Means (and SE) across the time intervals (T1, T2, T3, T4, FU) for the following variables: Sleep onset latency (SOL), Ease of falling asleep, Total bed time (TBT), Number of dreams. *Significant at P ≤ 0.05 [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]