Sleep duration and quality trajectories during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic: a Canadian nationally representative study.

backgroundPoor sleep health has wide-ranging consequences for general health. The year 2020 marked the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the world, an event that introduced dramatic disruptions to daily life. Studies conducted during the first wave of the pandemic reported a decrease in sleep quality but also an increase in sleep duration, which contradicts the simultaneous decrease in sleep duration reported in Canada. However, prior studies were not representative of the Canadian population. To assess pandemic-induced health disruptions, we investigated sleep health trajectories and health correlates during the first wave of COVID-19 in a longitudinal nationally representative sample of Canadians. We aimed (1) to determine the trajectories of sleep duration and sleep quality, (2) to identify health factors associated with unstable sleep trajectories, and (3) to explore associations between sleep trajectory groups.

methodsA nationally representative sample of 2,246 individuals residing in Canada was surveyed 6 times between April and July 2020. Participants reported on their sleep and health-related factors (e.g., sociological and demographic factors). We first used latent class growth analysis to identify sleep trajectories. We then used multinomial logistic regression models to determine the relationships between health-related predictors and trajectory groups. Finally, we used joint trajectory analysis to explore the relationships between sleep duration trajectories and sleep quality trajectories.

resultsWe identified four constant sleep quality trajectories (6.7%, 37.1%, 45.5%, and 10.7% of the sample). We identified two sleep duration trajectories, one of stable shortshort and stable sleep (33.9% of the sample), and one of long and decreasing (-2.32 min/2 weeks) sleep (66.1% of the sample). Living with someone predicted longer and decreasing sleep duration. Being 25 or older was associated with a lower likelihood of belonging to the long and decreasing sleep duration trajectory. There was a 98.9% likelihood of belonging to the long and decreasing sleep duration trajectory for those belonging to the higher sleep quality trajectory.

conclusionsIn our study, we found no convincing evidence that sleep health indicators deteriorated during the first wave of COVID-19 in Canada. The overall stability of sleep suggests that sleep is likely governed by factors that remained stable.