AbstractBackgroundAARP's Staying Sharp program is a digital platform dedicated to educating users on how to learn, practice, and apply holistic, lifestyle‐based behaviors that may impact cognitive aging. The Staying Sharp program has been active for several years, and currently has a userbase of over 800,000 members. This past year, COVID necessitated a massive shift in the way we live our lives; this particularly impacted older adults, who are especially vulnerable to COVID. Consequently, Staying Sharp pivoted in several ways in order to best serve as a valuable health education tool. Here, we will (1) discuss the lessons learned during this COVID‐driven pivot; and (2) present preliminary data analyses of the impact of COVID / social distancing on measures of behaviors in the domains of sleep, stress, and social interaction.MethodA retrospective analysis of >200,000 self‐reported lifestyle surveys from the platform evaluated responses regarding sleep hygiene, social isolation, and stress management. Responses were categorized across three periods: prior to April 1, 2020 (pre‐social distancing), from April 1 ‐ August 1 2020 (acute social distancing), and from August 1 2020 ‐ January 1 2020 (chronic social distancing). Demographic factors were also analyzed for potential correlation with self‐reported changes in lifestyle behaviors.ResultPreliminary results indicate age‐associated changes in sleep hygiene habits and stress management over the chronological progression of pandemic‐driven social distancing. Furthermore, changes in self‐reported habits of social media use and contact with family / friends were associated with total time elapsed since April 1; these behavior changes were also associated with age.ConclusionThe Staying Sharp platform carried out a significant pivot at the beginning of the COVID pandemic in order to best serve its userbase. With a cultural shift towards virtual health education, the digital Staying Sharp platform became positioned as an optimal source for health education related to cognitive aging. A preliminary analysis of retrospective data indicates pandemic‐associated shifts in self‐reported habits in sleep, stress, and social interaction as a function of age. These findings may represent an interesting line of future investigation in older populations, who are particularly affected by social distancing during the COVID era.