Two years after lockdown: Longitudinal trajectories of sleep disturbances and mental health over the COVID ‐19 pandemic, and the effects of age, gender and chronotype
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Abstract
Since the first lockdown of Spring 2020, the COVID-19 contagion waves pervasively disrupted the sleep and mental health of the worldwide population. Notwithstanding the largest vaccination campaign in human history, the pandemic has continued to impact the everyday life of the general population for 2 years now. The present study provides the first evidence of the longitudinal trajectories of sleep disturbances and mental health throughout the pandemic in Italy, also describing the differential time course of age groups, genders and chronotypes. A total of 1062 Italians participated in a three-time-point longitudinal study covering two critical stages of the emergency (the first lockdown in April 2020 and the second partial lockdown in December 2020) and providing a long-term overview 2 years after the pandemic outbreak (April 2022). We administered validated questionnaires to evaluate sleep quality/habits, insomnia, depression, stress and anxiety symptoms. Analyses showed a gradual improvement in sleep disturbances, depression and anxiety. Conversely, sleep duration progressively decreased, particularly in evening-type and younger people. Participants reported substantial earlier bedtime and get-up time. Stress levels increased during December 2020 and then stabilised. This effect was stronger in the population groups apparently more resilient during the first lockdown (older people, men and morning-types). Our results describe a promising scenario 2 years after the pandemic onset. However, the improvements were relatively small, the perceived stress increased, and the re-establishment of pre-existing social/working dynamics led to general sleep curtailment. Further long-term monitoring is required to claim the end of the COVID-19 emergency on Italians' sleep and mental health.
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The study demonstrated a higher insomnia persistence rate compared to other pandemic studies, which have ranged from 2% to 37%.
“However, we demonstrated a higher insomnia persistence rate compared to other pandemic studies, which have ranged from 2% to 37% [16, 19, 21–23].”
From Insomnia is more likely to persist than remit after a time of stress and uncertainty: a longitudinal cohort study examining trajectories and predictors of insomnia symptoms (2024) · cites this paper as [22]
The Sleep variables section reports a progressive improvement in insomnia symptom scores across three survey waves, but gives no insomnia persistence rate. Searches for a persistence rate and the 2%–37% range found no passage supporting the comparison attributed to this source; the citing authors’ own higher rate is not a finding attributed to it. (LLM, conf=0.75)
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Meaklim, H., Le, F., Drummond, S. P. A., Bains, S. K., Varma, P., Junge, M. F., & Jackson, M. L. (2024) · Sleep · doi:10.1093/sleep/zsae028 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
“…conducted in China found a very low insomnia persistence rate for adolescents from the general population of only 2% [16], while another study in Italy indicated a reduction of insomnia symptoms over 2 years of the pandemic, despite an increase in perceived stress over the same time period [22].”
BackgroundCheung, D. S. T., Yu, B. Y.-M., Lam, S. C., Leung, D. Y. P., Chung, K.-F., Ho, F. Y.-Y., Chen, S.-C., & Yeung, W.-F. (2024) · Sleep and Biological Rhythms · doi:10.1007/s41105-023-00486-w · Cited by 6 · see citing works
- Authors
- Salfi, F., Amicucci, G., Corigliano, D., Viselli, L., D'Atri, A., Tempesta, D., Gorgoni, M., Scarpelli, S., Alfonsi, V., & Ferrara, M.
- Affiliations
- University of L'Aquila (IT)
- Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences University of L'Aquila L'Aquila Italy
- Fondazione Santa Lucia (IT)
- Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Sleep Research
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2022-11
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- e13767-e13767
- ISSN
- 0962-1105 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2869
- PMC
- PMC9878065
- OpenAlex
- W4307844771
- Cited by
- 42
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 15
- FWCI
- 9.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Sleep Research (publishedVersion)
- medRxiv (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) (submittedVersion)
- Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca - Università degli Studi dell Aquila (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown, sleep disorders, sleep quality, insomnia, mental health, depression, anxiety, stress, chronotype, age differences, gender differences, sleep duration, bedtime, longitudinal trajectories, Italy
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, Chronotype, Aged, Anxiety, Communicable Disease Control, Depression, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Mental Health, Sleep, Sleep Wake Disorders, Pandemics
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