Abstract
ObjectiveTo prospectively document changes in adolescents’ sleep before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to examine their impact on adolescents’ perceived stress.MethodsSixty-two typically developing adolescents participated in the study before (Time 1: January 15 to March 13, 2020) and during (Time 2: May 15 to June 30, 2020) the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. At Time 1, each participant’s sleep pattern was assessed in the home environment using actigraphy and sleep logs for seven consecutive nights. Adolescents completed a battery of questionnaires in which they reported on their sleep schedule, duration, and quality, as well as their activities at bedtime, their daytime sleepiness, and their social/emotional behavior. The participants’ parents provided demographic information. At Time 2, each participant completed a sleep log, the same battery of questionnaires regarding sleep, and the Perceived Stress Scale.Results(1) Adolescents’ reported sleep was of longer duration and on a delayed schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to pre-pandemic. (2) A larger proportion of adolescents reported meeting or exceeding the recommended amount of sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to pre-pandemic sleep. (3) “Social jet lag” disappeared during the COVID-19 pandemic. (4) A shorter reported sleep duration and higher level of arousal at bedtime at Time 1 were significant predictors of adolescents’ perceived stress at Time 2—during the COVID-19 pandemic. (5) A higher levels of arousal at bedtime and lower reported sleep quality at Time 2 were concurrently associated with higher levels of perceived stress among adolescents, even when we controlled for the levels of pre-pandemic emotional or behavioral issues, sleep duration, or sleep quality.ConclusionSleep duration and cognitive-emotional arousal, which are both modifiable behaviors, were associated with adolescents’ perceived stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. These behaviors could be useful targets for preventive interventions aiming to reduce adolescents’ stress in the face of stressogenic situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights
The novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. 1 By January 27, 2020, the virus was confirmed to have reached Canada
(5) A higher levels of arousal at bedtime and lower reported sleep quality at Time 2 were concurrently associated with higher levels of perceived stress among adolescents, even when we controlled for the levels of pre-pandemic emo‐ tional or behavioral issues, sleep duration, or sleep quality
Sleep patterns Time 1, actigraphy The actigraphic data collected at Time 1 showed that during the week, participants fell asleep on average at 22:48 and woke up at 7:17
Summary
The novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. 1 By January 27, 2020, the virus was confirmed to have reached Canada. The first case of community transmission in Canada was confirmed on March 5, and province-wide school closures. Gruber et al Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health (2021) 15:43 and stay-at-home orders were announced in many provinces by March 13, 2020. A recent analysis projected that serious mental health problems caused by the pandemic will outlast its physical impact and will still be seen by 2029, suggesting that today’s elevated mental health challenges will continue well beyond the coronavirus outbreak itself [2]. The COVID-19 pandemic increased levels of uncertainty and psychological stress in adolescents around the world [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. Perceived stress, which refers to the degree to which a person assesses events in their life as being stressful, unpredictable, and uncontrollable [17, 18] is a psychological risk factor that contributes to the onset and development psychiatric symptoms among adolescents [19,20,21,22]
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