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Pandemic ‘Silver Lining:’ Better Sleep for Some

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The one negative: Students were going to sleep later and waking later, which contributes to poor health.

Poor sleep habits can worsen several major health problems, include heart disease, obesity, diabetes, mood disorders and substance abuse, according to the study. And sleep is particularly important during the pandemic — lack of sleep weakens the immune system, putting people at risk of infection.

“We can go on and on into almost every major health condition,” Wright said. “When you’re not getting enough sleep, it’s altering your physiology in ways that are unhealthy.”

Dr. Shelley Hershner, director of the Collegiate Sleep Clinic at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, looked over the study findings and said they dovetailed with some of her own students’ behaviors.

She said the benefits might have occurred because remote classes allowed some students to take classes at flexible times, not early in the morning.

Sleep is a critical issue for college students and one of the biggest barriers to academic performance, Hershner said, adding that students have sleep stressors that other populations don’t, with workloads and schedules that vary a lot.

“One of the primary functions of sleep is learning and memory. It’s very vital in this age demographic,” Hershner said, adding depression and anxiety are prevalent among college students.

“Whatever we can do to improve sleep health is actually going to potentially impact the mental health of students,” she said.

Although the study did not consider how behaviors such as substance use, jobs or social lives affected students’ sleep, Wright said it’s clear anecdotally that the pandemic has changed commuting times and social lives of many people.

“There are probably a number of factors like that contributing to this,” he said.

Wright said another recent sleep study, of 18- to 65-year-olds in Europe, found similar results.

“The fact that we have consistency in different populations, different parts of the world, in very different lockdown situations suggest that these findings are representative of what’s happening in other populations,” he said.

The findings were published June 10 in the journal Current Biology.



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