Our lives were disrupted in many ways during the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, these disruptions created some interesting opportunities for research. A vast number of office workers went home to work remotely during lockdown, which made their work schedules more flexible in many cases. How did their sleep patterns change? Social jet lag (SJL) is the term sleep scientists to use for the gap between our natural sleep patterns and the the social schedules -mainly work and school- that we must adhere to in normal circumstances. Night owls suffer the biggest SJL when they have to be at work in the morning, while early birds suffer less because their natural sleep pattern conforms to social obligations.
Nearly 15,000 from 14 countries participated in a study of sleep patterns to determine the pandemic's effect on SJL. They found that when people determine their own work hours, 46% of participants reduced their SJL. Most did this by sleeping later in the morning, starting work later, and staying up later at night. Another 20% increased their SJJL, and the rest observed no change.
The research showed that nearly half of the population follows a schedule that betrays their natural, later chronotype. What’s surprising, however, is that the people who reduced their SJL experienced more insomnia and stress during the pandemic than those who maintained a consistent SJL. This is probably because spending too long in bed reduces sleep efficiency, making it harder to sleep throughout the night.
That's makes sense, as sleep scientists have long advised insomniacs to not lay in bed unless they intend to sleep, so that they become conditioned to associating the bed with sleep. Read more about Social Jet Lag and pandemic sleep patterns at Science Focus. -via Damn Interesting