The early‐stage impacts of shock events on adult sleep: Lessons from the COVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

AbstractThe present study aims to estimate the early‐stage association of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic with sleep duration, 4 months after the initial outbreak, at a national level. Using the China Family Panel Studies in 2018 and its follow‐up in 2020, 16,563 adult participants were analyzed in our study. The first wave transmissibility of the COVID‐19 pandemic in mainland China was used as a quasi‐natural experiment. The difference in difference method was employed to compare variations across participants interviewed before or after the pandemic and between groups from provinces with different COVID‐19 severity. The study observed a decline in workday sleep duration among adults, regardless of their employment status. Specifically, working adults experienced a significant decrease in sleep duration on work days (−1.54, 95% confidence interval −2.16 to −0.92), alongside an increase on work‐free days (2.41, 1.56–3.24), leading to a wider sleep discrepancy in sleep patterns (3.95, 3.31–4.59). Noteworthy, working‐age adults (−2.00, −2.79 to −1.22) and males (−3.31, −4.31 to −2.30) exhibited greater sleep decreases on work days, whereas females exhibited a more pronounced disparity in sleep patterns (6.18, 4.73–7.63) between work and work‐free days. The pandemic is significantly associated with prolonged changes in adults' sleep duration, including sleep decreases on work days and catch‐up sleep on work‐free days for working adults. To prepare for future global emergencies, the government may need to promote resilience to mitigate the pandemic's adverse impacts on the working population. Guaranteeing adequate sleep among working adults and reducing sleep debt should be prioritized in such efforts.