Maintaining normal sleep patterns, lifestyles and emotion during the COVID‐19 pandemic: The stabilizing effect of daytime napping

Dai, Wenjuan; Zhou, Jieying; Li, Guangming; Zhang, Bin; Ma, Ning

This study aimed to assess changes in sleep pattern and their influence on people's daily life and emotion during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Self‐developed questionnaires were used to measure changes in nocturnal sleep, daytime napping, lifestyles and negative emotions in individuals before and after the COVID‐19 pandemic. Nine hundred and thirty effective questionnaires were collected in this study. Repeated measures analysis of variance and hierarchical regression analysis were applied. We found that individuals' sleep rhythms were delayed, and sleep duration and sleep latency were increased during the stay‐at‐home orders. Meanwhile, their exercise levels and learning/working efficiency were decreased, and electronic device use time, annoyance levels and anxiety levels were increased. Delayed sleep patterns affected lifestyles and emotions. Moreover, sleep quality positively predicted learning/working efficiency and exercise levels, and negatively predicted use of electronic devices and negative emotions. Sleep patterns became delayed on weekdays during stay‐at‐home orders in all four daytime napping groups (no daytime napping, daytime napping as before, more daytime napping and less daytime napping), and the group taking daytime naps as before had a minimal variation, and their lifestyles and emotions were significantly better than those of the other groups. This study demonstrated that under the influence of stress caused by the pandemic, maintaining regular daytime napping was an effective way to stabilize sleep patterns and biological rhythms, keep good lifestyles and alleviate the effect of acute psychological stress, and to prevent and control mental disorders during the pandemic.