ArticleCurrent biology : CB2020
Effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on human sleep and rest-activity rhythms.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 165 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
165 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 306 citations in OpenAlex.
- Changes in Sleep Duration and Sleep Timing in the General Population from before to during the First COVID-19 Lockdown: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Pooled it
- Changes in sleep quality and sleep disturbances in the general population from before to during the COVID-19 lockdown: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Social jetlag in a longitudinal Chinese wearable cohort: weekly variation, solar-time mismatch, and sleep-activity associations.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2026Article
- Understanding Sleep Disturbance Due to Stressors: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study During the COVID-19 Pandemic.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- The privacy and safety paradox regarding technical compliance and employer enforcement of home office lighting requirements.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Sleep patterns during the pandemic and covid-related stress: a large-scale study in the general population of Serbia and Republic of Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina).Population health metrics · 2026Article
- Early career psychiatrists in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study.CNS spectrums · 2025Article
- From Lockdowns to Long COVID-Unraveling the Link Between Sleep, Chronotype, and Long COVID Symptoms.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Sleep duration and quality trajectories during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic: a Canadian nationally representative study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- No association between chronotype and cardiovascular response to a cognitive challenge in the morning using a Bayesian approach.Neurobiology of sleep and circadian rhythms · 2025Article
- Not All Workers Experience Equal Sleep Changes: Insights from the "WorkInCovid" Project.Clocks & sleep · 2025Article
- Sleep Alterations in the Population of the Metropolitan Area of Mexico and Their Association with Lifestyle Changes During COVID-19 Confinement.Clocks & sleep · 2025Article
- Individual associations of self-reported sleep duration, sleep quality, chronotype and social jet lag with infectious disease risk.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- How chronotype, sleep-wake cycle, subjective time experience influence retrospective, and prospective memory functioning.Frontiers in cognition · 2025Article
- Prevalence of nonrestorative sleep before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: based on a nationwide cross-sectional survey among Japanese in 2019 and 2022.Environmental health and preventive medicine · 2025Article
- Impact of campus closure during COVID-19 on lifestyle, educational performance, and anxiety levels of college students in China.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Examining the structure validity of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index among female workers during New Zealand's initial COVID-19 lockdown.Sleep and biological rhythms · 2024Article
- Preventive Effect of a 7-Week App-Based Passive Psychoeducational Stress Management Program on Students.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- A feasibility study to understand the components of behavioral sleep extension.PEC innovation · 2023Article
- Relationship between Telework Jetlag and Perceived Psychological Distress among Japanese Hybrid Workers.Clocks & sleep · 2023Article
105 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
In modern societies, human rest-activity rhythms and sleep result from the tensions and dynamics between the conflicting poles of external social time (e.g., work hours and leisure activities) and an individual's internal biological time. A mismatch between the two has been suggested to induce 'social jetlag' [1] and 'social sleep restriction', that is, shifts in sleep timing and differences in sleep duration between work days and free days. Social jetlag [2,3] and sleep restrictions [4] have repeatedly been associated with negative consequences on health, mental wellbeing, and performance. In a large-scale quasi-experimental design, we investigated the effects of the phase with the most rigorous COVID-19 restrictions on the relationship between social and biological rhythms as well as sleep during a six-week period (mid-March until end of April 2020) in three European societies (Austria, Germany, Switzerland). We found that, on one hand, the restrictions reduced the mismatch between external (social) and internal (biological) sleep-wake timing, as indexed by significant reductions in social jetlag and social sleep restriction, with a concomitant increase in sleep duration. Sleep quality on the other hand was slightly reduced. The improved individual sleep-wake timing can presumably be attributed to an increased flexibility of social schedules, for instance due to more work being accomplished from home. However, this unprecedented situation also led to a significant increase in self-perceived burden, which was attendant to the decrease in sleep quality. These adverse effects may be alleviated by exposure to natural daylight as well as physical exercise.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.