The impact of COVID-19 related school shutdown on sleep in adolescents: a natural experiment
Open accessAbstract
Objective During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, high schools closed or transitioned to remote teaching. The aim of this study was to describe how the COVID-19 related school shutdown impacted the sleep behaviors of typically developing adolescents. Methods A qualitative study was conducted between April 28 and June 3, 2020 with 45 adolescents using one-on-one semi-structured phone interviews. Results The "natural experiment" caused by the shutdown of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to a 2-h shift in the sleep of typically developing adolescents, longer sleep duration, improved sleep quality, and less daytime sleepiness compared to those experienced under the regular school-time schedule. Discussion These findings are consistent with previous studies showing that delaying high school start times could be an effective way to extend sleep duration, improve sleep quality, reduce daytime sleepiness and lower adolescents' stress during the school year. As many countries look for ways to reduce the number of interactions between students in schools so that physical distancing is feasible, following teens' delayed sleep biology could offer an affordable solution. For example, staggering arrival times by delaying school start time for older adolescents compared with younger adolescents can reduce the total number of students attending school at the same time. This strategy offers a practical means to reduce school density and the number of interactions between students which are needed to reduce the potential transmission of COVID-19 in schools, while improving adolescents sleep health.
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School closures and the transition to remote learning during COVID-19 led to significant increases in adolescent sleep duration.
“school closures and the transition to remote learning during COVID-19 greatly impacted sleep among adolescents (e.g., [83][84][85]), leading to significant increases in adolescent sleep duration [83].”
From Later School Start Times as a Public Health Intervention to Promote Sleep Health in Adolescents (2023) · cites this paper as [83]
The Results section reports that most of the 45 interviewed adolescents described improved sleep quality and/or duration after school shutdown, and the Discussion describes longer sleep duration under the changed schedule. The study was qualitative; these passages do not establish that the increase in sleep duration was statistically significant. (LLM, conf=0.87)
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National Sleep Foundation's sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary.
Hirshkowitz, M., Whiton, K., Albert, S. M., Alessi, C., Bruni, O., DonCarlos, L., Hazen, N., Herman, J., Katz, E. S., Kheirandish-Gozal, L., et al. (2015) · Sleep Health · doi:10.1016/j.sleh.2014.12.010 · Cited by 4,404 · cited 1× · see citing works
“A large proportion of adolescents in different countries around the world [1,2] get less than the recommended amount of nightly sleep [3].”
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Research works printed but not linked: 5
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Cassinat, J. R., Whiteman, S. D., Serang, S., Dotterer, A. M., Mustillo, S. A., Maggs, J. L., & Kelly, B. C. (2021) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/dev0001217 · Cited by 146 · see citing works
Prospective examination of adolescent sleep patterns and behaviors before and during COVID-19
Becker, S. P., Dvorsky, M. R., Breaux, R., Cusick, C. N., Taylor, K. P., & Langberg, J. M. (2021) · Sleep · doi:10.1093/sleep/zsab054 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
Bani‐Issa, W., Radwan, H., Saqan, R., Hijazi, H., Fakhry, R., Alameddine, M., Naja, F., Ibrahim, A., Lin, N., Naing, Y. T., et al. (2023) · Journal of Sleep Research · doi:10.1111/jsr.13666 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Later School Start Times as a Public Health Intervention to Promote Sleep Health in Adolescents
Mousavi, Z., & Troxel, W. M. (2023) · Current Sleep Medicine Reports · doi:10.1007/s40675-023-00263-8 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Troxel, W. M., Palimaru, A. I., Klein, D. J., Dong, L., Dickerson, D. L., Brown, R. A., Johnson, C. L., & D’Amico, E. J. (2022) · Behavioral Sleep Medicine · doi:10.1080/15402002.2021.2022679 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Teachers’ preference for later school start times
Albrecht, J. N., Werner, H., Yaw, M. L., Jenni, O. G., & Huber, R. (2022) · Journal of Sleep Research · doi:10.1111/jsr.13534 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Gruber, R., Saha, S., Somerville, G., Boursier, J., & Wise, M. S.
- Affiliations
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Gruber, Reut
- Venue
- Sleep Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-12
- Volume
- 76
- Pages
- 33-35
- ISSN
- 1389-9457 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7508172
- OpenAlex
- W3087029665
- Cited by
- 105
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 34
- FWCI
- 20.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Sleep Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Circadian rhythm and melatonin
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, adolescent sleep, sleep duration, sleep quality, daytime sleepiness, social distancing, natural experiment
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adolescent, Adolescent Behavior, Circadian Rhythm, Female, Humans, Male, Sleep, Social Isolation, Students, Time Factors
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